SiO2-CaO-K2O coatings on alumina and Ti6Al4V substrates for biomedical applications

Alumina and Ti6Al4V alloys are widely used for orthopedics and dental applications due to their good mechanical properties and biocompatibility. Unfortunately they can not provide a satisfactory osteointegration when implanted. In fact, both alumina and Ti6Al4V are not bioactive and thus they can only guarantee a morphological fixation with the surrounding tissues without a suitable chemical anchorage. Aiming to impart bioactive properties to these materials a coating can be proposed. At this purpose, a bioactive glass belonging to the SiO2-CaO-K2O system was selected and prepared. This glass, named SCK, possess a thermal expansion coefficient matching with the alumina (8.5x 10(- 6)/ degrees C) and Ti6Al4V (9 x 10(- 6)/ degrees C) ones and thus is a good candidate to produce coatings on both of them. Simple and low-cost enameling and glazing techniques were used to realize the coatings. Structural, morphological and compositional characterizations of the coatings were carried out by means of X-ray diffraction, optical and scanning microscopy and compositional analyses. The in vitro properties of the coatings were investigated by soaking them in a simulated body fluid (SBF) in order to study the precipitation, on their surfaces, of a biologically active layer of hydroxylapatite (HAp).