Development of ceramic coatings on titanium alloy substrate by laser cladding with pre-placed natural derived-slurry: Influence of hydroxyapatite ratio and beam power

The attraction towards Ti and its alloys reside in their superior mechanical and tribological features, as compared to CaPs, which are renowned for their compositional and structural features similar to those of natural bones. However, Ti-based materials suffer from limited biocompatibility and inertness when implanted for extended periods. As such, surface modification with ceramic coatings is required in order to achieve proper biomedical features and enhance their overall behavior in the human body. Hence, this study outlined for the first time the prospect of coating several Ti6Al4V substrates (disks) with bovine-bone derived hydroxyapatite (HA) by laser cladding technique with pre-placed slurry. During laser processing the input materials merge depending on the heating rate/temperature and clad materials. The proposed sample preparation set-up, followed for the first time in this study, involved the concomitant modulation of two parameters: the natural HA ratio (100 wt%, and 50 wt % HA + 50 wt% Ti blends) and laser beam power (500-1000 W range). The laser beam was applied after the ceramic slurries (prepared HA/HA-based blends mixed with polyvinyl alcohol) were placed inside the priorly machined channels on the metallic Ti disks. Partially overlapped cladding tracks (similar to 30% overlapping ratio) resulted and the investigations were further performed in cross-section view. The structural analyses confirmed the formation of calcium titanate as main phase for all samples and the arrest of HA only for those prepared with 100% HA ratio at low to medium laser powers. In addition, the morpho-compositional evaluation revealed the formation of a fully ceramic coating only for the latter sample sets. Further, the surface wettability (contact angle and surface free energy) and Vickers micro-hardness results led to the selection of the optimal technological parameters for the development of ceramic cladded layers with prospect compatibility with regenerative med-icine applications.

Automated summary

The superior mechanical and tribological features of Ti and its alloys make them attractive, but they lack biocompatibility and inertness when implanted in the body for a long time. Surface modification with ceramic coatings is necessary to improve their biomedical features. This study proposed the prospect of coating Ti6Al4V substrates with bovine-bone derived hydroxyapatite (HA) using laser cladding technique. The structural analysis confirmed the formation of calcium titanate as the main phase and the presence of HA only in samples prepared with 100% HA ratio at low to medium laser powers. The optimal technological parameters for ceramic cladded layers with potential compatibility with regenerative medicine applications were determined.