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. 2017 Nov 13;10(11):1302. doi: 10.3390/ma10111302

Table 2.

Commonly applied methods to modify titanium surface structures into the nanoscale in the orthopaedic field [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24].

Technique Modified Layer Objective
Mechanical

  • Grinding

  • Polishing

  • Machining

  • Blasting

 Rough or smooth surface formed by the subtraction process Produce specific surface topographies;
Clean and roughen surface;
Improve adhesion in bonding

  • Attrition

 To fabricate nanophase surface layers on Ti of commercial
purity which improve the tensile properties and surface hardness of Ti		 Produce materials with nanometre size grains (1–100 nm);
To produce rough morphology and higher hydrophilicity
Chemical

  • Acidic treatment

  • Alkaline treatment

  • Hydrogen peroxide treatment

 <10 nm of surface oxide layer
~1 μm of sodium titanate gel
~5 nm of dense inner oxide and porous outer layer		 Remove oxide scales and contamination.
Improve biocompatibility, bioactivity or bone conductivity.
Improve biocompatibility, bioactivity or bone conductivity

  • Sol-gel

 ~10 μm of thin film, such as
calcium phosphate, TiO2 and silica		 Improve biocompatibility, bioactivity or bone conductivity

  • CVD

 ~1 μm of TiN, TiC, TiCN, diamond and diamond-like carbon thin film Improve wear resistance, corrosion resistance and blood compatibility

  • Anodic oxidation

 ~10 nm–40 μm of TiO2 layer, adsorption and incorporation of electrolyte anions Produce specific surface topographies; improve corrosion resistance; improve biocompatibility, bioactivity or bone conductivity

  • Biochemical methods

 Coating deposition; modification through silanized Ti, photochemistry, self-assembled monolayers, protein-resistance, etc. Induce specific cell and tissue response by means of surface immobilized peptides, proteins, or growth factors
Physical
  • Thermal spray
    • ✓
      flame spray
    • ✓
      plasma spray
    • ✓
      high velocity oxy-fuel spray
    • ✓
      others
 ~30 to ~200 μm of coatings, such as titanium, HA, calcium silicate, Al2O3, ZrO2, TiO2 Improve wear resistance, corrosion resistance and biological properties (osteoblast adhesion)
  • Physical vapour deposition
    • ✓
      Evaporation
    • ✓
      Ion plating
    • ✓
      Sputtering
 ~1 μm of TiN, TiC, TiCN,
diamond and diamond-like
carbon thin film
Hydroxyapatite coating by sputtering		 Improve wear resistance, corrosion resistance and blood compatibility.

  • Ion implantation and deposition

 ~10 nm of surface modified layer and/or um of thin film Modify surface composition; improve wear, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility

  • Glow discharge plasma treatment

 ~1 nm to ~100 nm of surface modified layer Cleaning, sterilizing or oxidizing the surface; surface nitridation; removal of the native oxide layer