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Macro-micron-nano-featured surface topography of Ti-6Al-4V alloy for biomedical applications

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Abstract

One of the critical issues in the development of novel metallic biomaterials is the design and fabrication of metallic scaffolds and implants with hierarchical structures mimicking human bones. In this work, selective laser melting (SLM) and electrochemical anodization were applied to fabricate dense Ti-6Al-4V components with macro-micron-nanoscale hierarchical surfaces. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), 3D laser scanning microscopy (3D LSM), contact angle video system, fluorescence microscopy and spectrophotometer were used to investigate the properties of the samples. The results reveal that the SLMed post-anodization (SLM-TNT) exhibits enhanced or at least comparable wettability, protein adsorption and biological response of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in comparison with the three reference configurations, i.e., the polished Ti-6Al-4V (PO-Ti64), the SLMed Ti-6Al-4V (SLM-Ti64) and the polished Ti-6Al-4V post-anodization (PO-TNT). The improved cytocompatibility of the samples after SLM and anodization should be mainly attributed to the nanoscale tubular features, while the macro-micron-scale structures only lead to slight preference for cell attachment.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51604104), Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (No. ZDSYS201703031748354) and the National Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2016A030313756).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Biology, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Da-Peng Zhao, Jin-Cheng Tang, He-Min Nie, Yuan Zhang & Yu-Kai Chen

  2. Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing of High-Performance Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Xu Zhang, Hui-Xing Li & Ming Yan

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  1. Da-Peng Zhao
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  2. Jin-Cheng Tang
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  3. He-Min Nie
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  4. Yuan Zhang
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  6. Xu Zhang
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Correspondence to Da-Peng Zhao.

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Zhao, DP., Tang, JC., Nie, HM. et al. Macro-micron-nano-featured surface topography of Ti-6Al-4V alloy for biomedical applications. Rare Met. 37, 1055–1063 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-018-1150-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-018-1150-7

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