Development of Vitroceramic Coatings and Analysis of Their Suitability for Biomedical Applications

Within the field of tissue engineering, thin films have been studied to improve implant fixation of metallic or ceramic materials in bone, connective tissue, oral mucosa or skin. In this context, to enhance their suitability as implantable devices, titanium-based substrates received a superficial vitroceramic coating by means of laser ablation. Further, this study describes the details of fabrication and corresponding tests in order to demonstrate the bioactivity and biocompatibility of the newly engineered surfaces. Thus, the metallic supports were covered with a complex material composed of SiO2, P2O5, CaO, MgO, ZnO and CaF2, in the form of thin layers via a physical deposition techniques, namely pulsed laser deposition. The resulting products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, selected area electron diffraction, and electron energy loss spectroscopy. It was found that a higher substrate temperature and a lower working pressure lead to the highest quality film. Finally, the samples biocompatibility was assessed and they were found to be bioactive after simulated body fluid soaking and biocompatible through the MTT cell viability test.