Surface functionalization of biomedical Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy by liquid metal dealloying

Ilya Vladimirovich Okulov, Soo Hyun Joo, Artem Vladimirovich Okulov, Alexey Sergeevich Volegov, Bérengère Luthringer, Regine Willumeit-Römer, Laichang Zhang, Lutz Mädler, Jürgen Eckert, Hidemi Kato

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Surface functionalization is an effective approach to change the surface properties of a material to achieve a specific goal such as improving the biocompatibility of the material. Here, the surface of the commercial biomedical Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy was functionalized through synthesizing of a porous surface layer by liquid metal dealloying (LMD). During LMD, the Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy is immersed in liquid magnesium (Mg) and both materials react with each other. Particularly, aluminum (Al) is selectively dissolved from the Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy into liquid Mg while titanium (Ti) and niobium (Nb) diffuse along the metal/liquid interface to form a porous structure. We demonstrate that the porous surface layer in the Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy can be successfully tailored by LMD. Furthermore, the concentration of harmful Al in this porous layer is reduced by about 48% (from 5.62 ± 0.11 wt.% to 2.95 ± 0.05 wt.%) after 30 min of dealloying at 1150 K. The properties of the porous layer (e.g., layer thickness) can be tuned by varying the dealloying conditions. In-vitro tests suggest improved bone formation on the functionalized porous surface of the Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1479
Pages (from-to)1-12
Number of pages12
JournalNanomaterials
Volume10
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020 Aug

Keywords

  • Biocompatibility
  • Biomaterial
  • Dealloying
  • Porous surface
  • Surface functionalization

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