Effect of heat treatment on apatite coatings deposited on pre-calcified titanium substrates

Titanium and its alloys are considered interesting materials for endosseous implants. However, they still present drawbacks related to their in-vivo behavior that can be overcome by coatings, such as apatite. This work focuses on the deposition of apatite coatings on commercially pure titanium (grade II) substrates previously pre-calcified. The influence of the temperature used in the thermal treatment on the microstructure and tribo-mechanical surface properties was analyzed. The coatings were structurally and chemically characterized and their tribo-mechanical behavior was evaluated. The nano-apatite coatings were only formed on surfaces with successive treatments in NaOH and CaCl solutions. In addition, scratch tests showed that after the heat treatment the nanoapatite coatings had high bond strength to the substrate.
Authors thank to ICMS(CSIC-US)(Spain) for the use of their SEM and XRD facilities. Also, the authors thank to IMRE (Cuba) for the tests performed at the Lucesproject facilities. This work was supported by the Junta de Andalucía-FEDER (Spain) through the Project Ref. P12-TEP-1401 and by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the State General Administration of Spain under the grant MAT2015-71284-P.