Novel laser textured surface designs for improved zirconia implants performance

The development of new surface designs to enhance the integration process between surgically placed implants and biological tissues remains a challenge for the scientific community. In this way and trying to overcome this issue, in this work, laser technology was explored to produce novel textures on the surface of green zirconia compacts produced by cold pressing technique. Two strategies regarding line design (8 and 16 lines design) and different laser parameters (laser power and number of laser passages) were explored to assess their influence on geometry and depth of created textures. The produced textures were evaluated with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and it was observed that well-defined textured surfaces with regular geometric features (cavities or pillars) were obtained by laser combining different strategies lines design and parameters. The potential of proposed textures was also evaluated regarding surface wettability, friction performance (static and dynamic coefficient of friction evolution) against bone, aging resistance and flexural strength. Results demonstrated that all the produced textures display a super hydrophilic or hydrophilic behavior. Regarding the friction behavior, it was experimentally observed a high initial static coefficient of friction (COF) for all produced textures. Concerning the aging resistance, all the textured surfaces revealed a low monoclinic content, less than 25% after 5 h of hydrothermal aging. The flexural strength results showed that the mechanical resistance of zirconia was not significantly compromised with the laser action. Based on the obtained results, it is possible to prove that the processing route used for manufacturing the new and different surface designs (cold pressing technique followed by laser texturing) showed to be particularly effective for the production of zirconia implants with customized surface designs according to the properties required in a specific application. These new surface designs besides to enhance the surface wettability and also to improve the fixation at the initial moment of the implantation, do not significantly compromise the resistance to aging and the mechanical performance of zirconia. Hence, a positive impact on the long-term performance of the zirconia implants may be expected with the proposed novel laser textured surface designs.