Fatigue behavior of calcium phosphate coatings with different stability under dry and wet conditions

To obtain stable plasma sprayed calcium phosphate coatings, coatings with a high crystallinity and low solubility were developed. However, stability of ceramic coatings is also influenced by their fatigue resistance. Recently, fatigue failure was proposed to explain coating detachment from implants under loaded conditions. Therefore, plasma-sprayed calcium phosphate coatings with different crystallinity were investigated in vitro for fatigue failure. An amorphous and a crystalline hydroxylapatite coating (AHA and CHA) and a highly crystalline fluorapatite coating (FA) were subjected to cyclic load tests, both in dry conditions and in simulated body fluid (SBF). The results in SBF revealed that the crystalline CHA and FA coating detached completely at the highest stressed middle section of the bar. The FA coating delaminated earlier than the CHA coating. The amorphous AHA coating showed only partial coating loss at the completion of the test. Tests in dry conditions did not reveal any change in the coatings tested. These results suggest a relation between crystallinity of apatite coatings and their failure due to fatigue: high crystallinity coatings demonstrate earlier and more complete fatigue failure than the amorphous apatite coatings. It can be concluded that coating stability is not determined solely by static dissolution, but by fatigue failure as well.