Biological-standard PIII surface conditioning of CpTi instruments and prostheses.

Abstract: Several theoretical and experimental studies have been carried out in recent years aimed at enhancing the mechanical resistance and osseo-integration of titanium based dental implants. The often inadequate mechanical properties of commercially pure titanium (CpTi) can lead to the clinical failure of dental materials. A plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) process has been applied to CpTi samples in an optimized nitrogen/oxygen gas mixture at middle and high temperatures, improving considerably the properties of these. Studies of microhardness, corrosion, AFM, XRD and Raman spectroscopy have been applied in order to evaluate the treated samples whereby highly biocompatible TiO2 (Rutile) and TiNx layers have been identified. A high corrosion tolerance was found for CpTi, indicating a typical passive behavior of titanium, which can be attributed to a highly stable film formed on the samples placed in Hank's solution. The hardness was improved nearly five times with respect to that of the control material. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]