A. Mazzoli, A. Montenero, G. Moriconi, O. Favoni, and I. Alfieri (Italy)
Hydroxyapatite thin films, Plasma - spray, Sol-gel
A comparative study between hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings produced by two different techniques, plasma spray (PS) and sol-gel route (SG) was carried out. Plasma spray is currently commercially used for coating dental and orthopaedical implant devices. Sol-gel offers an alternative technique for producing bioactive surfaces for improved bone attachment. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for the surface and cross-sectional morphology analysis, while EDX elemental maps were used to define the boundary in the distribution of Ca and P. To evaluate the bioactivity in vitro, the samples were soaked in Kokubo’s SBF solution for 10 days. The weights of the samples were obtained, before and after soaking, using an electronic balance with an accuracy of ± 0.0001 g. This study reveals that the sol-gel technique appears to be a good candidate to replace the plasma spray in many biomedical applications.
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