Effect of Ti-OH formation on bioactivity of vacuum plasma sprayed titanium coating after chemical treatment

The effect of Ti-OH groups on bioactivity of NaOH treated titanium coating was investigated in this paper. The NaOH-heat treatment was also applied to modify the titanium coating for comparison. The results show that the amount of Ti-OH groups was important to induce apatite formation on the treated titanium coating. When the NaOH treated titanium coating was exposed to SBF, it released Na+ ions from the sodium titanate layer on its surface into the SBF via exchanging with H3O+ ions in the fluid and Ti-OH groups were rapidly formed on the surface. So the NaOH treated titanium coating has good bioactivity in simulated body fluid (SBF). The amount of Ti-OH groups on the titanium coating was reduced after heat treatment, so the bioactivity of NaOH-heat treated titanium coating was obviously affected. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.