Vacuum wetting of Ag/TA2 to develop a novel micron porous Ti with significant biocompatibility and antibacterial activity

Porous Ti with low modulus, excellent bio-corrosion resistance, biocompatibility, and antibacterial activity is highly pursued as advanced implant materials. In this work, a new approach to prepare micron porous structures on the surface layer of a grade 2 commercially-pure Ti (TA2) was proposed, which utilized a simple vacuum wetting process of pure Ag on the surface of TA2. The microstructure, corrosion resistance, biocompatibility, mechanical properties, antibacterial ability, and formation mechanism of the asfabricated porous Ti were studied. The results show that the pores (with average pore sizes of 0.5-5 mu m) are distributed on the surface layer of the TA2 with a depth of -10 mu m. In particular, a large number of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) form which are dispersed on the porous structures. The formation mechanisms of the porous structures and AgNPs were elucidated, suggesting that the volatilization/sublimation of Ag in TA2 is crucial. The porous Ti possesses excellent bio-corrosion resistance, surface wettability, biocompatibility, antibacterial activity, and a relatively low elastic modulus of 40-55 GPa, which may have a promising future in the field of orthopedic implants. This work also provides a novel idea for the development of advanced porous Ti materials for orthopedic-related basic research and biomedical applications. (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.

Automated summary

A new method was proposed to prepare micron porous structures on the surface of commercially-pure Ti using pure Ag through a vacuum wetting process. The fabricated porous Ti exhibited excellent bio-corrosion resistance, surface wettability, biocompatibility, antibacterial activity, and a relatively low elastic modulus, showing potential for orthopedic implant applications.