Nick Unbehaun

Bachelor student

The effects of surface pre-treatment of titanium substrates on the properties of electrophoretically deposited double-layered coatings

 

Supervisors: Zoya Hadzhieva, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Metallic implants, e.g., made out of titanium, are widely used and continue to play an important role in the biomedical industry [1]. A promising method to reduce their risk of failure is to deposit bioactive and antibacterial coatings on the metallic surface using Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD), a capable and cost-effective technique for the processing of composite organic-inorganic coatings [2][3]. In order to enhance the coating adhesion and biological properties, the effects of different pre-treatments of titanium followed by EPD of double-layered composite coatings, consisting of phytotherapeutic drug, biopolymers and ion-doped bioactive glass, will be investigated. The morphology, wettability, adhesion strength and biocompatibility of the coatings will be analysed.

[1] F. Maciąg, T. Moskalewicz, K. Kowalski, A. Łukaszczyk, Z. Hadzhieva, A.R. Boccaccini (2021). The Effect of Electrophoretic Deposition Parameters on the Microstructure and Adhesion of Zein Coatings to Titanium Substrates. Materials 14, 312.

[2] N. Meyer, L. R. Rivera, T. Ellis, J. Qi, M. P. Ryan, A. R. Boccaccini (2018). Bioactive and antibacterial coatings based on zein/bioactive glass composites by electrophoretic deposition, Coatings, 8, 27.

[3] A. R. Boccaccini, S. Keim, R. Ma, Y. Li, and I. Zhitomirsky (2010) Electrophoretic deposition of biomaterials Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 7 (5), S581–S613.