Surface Modification of Stainless Steel Orthopedic Implants by Sol–Gel ZrTiO₄ and ZrTiO₄–PMMA Coatings

Abstract

In this paper, the biocompatibility of a medical-grade stainless steel coated with sol-gel derived, nanostructured inorganic ZrTiO4 and hybrid ZrTiO4-PMMA thin films is correlated with surface characteristics. The surfaces of the samples are characterized by atomic force microscopy, the sessile drop technique, and electrochemical corrosion experiments. The viability of adult human mesenchymal stem cells on the surfaces after one day of culture is also assessed quantitatively and morphologically. According to the results, both of the coatings improve the hydrophilicity, corrosion resistance, and thereby cytocompatibility of the substrate. Despite the higher corrosion protection by the hybrid coating, the sample coated with the inorganic thin film exhibits a better cell response, suggesting the domination of wettability. In summary, the ZrTiO4-based sol-gel films can be considered to improve the biocompatibility of metallic implants.

Is cell viability always directly related to corrosion resistance of stainless steels?

“…4,5,6,7,8,9 Among them, it is known that the ion release rate can be directly related to corrosion rate, especially uniform corrosion instead of localized types. 10,11 Thus, electrochemical corrosion measurements like impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization, measuring uniform corrosion rate, can be used to qualitatively estimate and compare cell viability. 10,11,12 With regard to biodegradable metallic biomaterials like magnesium-based alloys, corrosion products fundamentally are advantageous to biological processes, since released ions are essential accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.…”

Development and degradation behavior of magnesium scaffolds coated with polycaprolactone for bone tissue engineering

“…It is well-known that surface modification can effectively enhance the properties of metals, especially for biomedical applications [17][18][19][20]. Coating of Mg alloys seems to be necessary to improve their degradation resistance [21,22].…”

Response surface modeling and voltammetric evaluation of Co-rich Cu–Co alloy coatings obtained from glycine baths

“…The coating porosity was evaluated by the polarization resistance method [30][31][32][33][34] using Eq. (7).…”