Baghdadite coating formed by hybrid water-stabilized plasma spray for bioceramic applications: Mechanical and biological evaluations

Duy Quang Pham; Christopher C Berndt; Jan Cizek; Uwe Gbureck; Hala Zreiqat; Zufu Lu; Andrew Siao Ming Ang

doi:10.1016/j.msec.2021.111873

Baghdadite coating formed by hybrid water-stabilized plasma spray for bioceramic applications: Mechanical and biological evaluations

Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2021 Mar:122:111873. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2021.111873. Epub 2021 Jan 8.

Authors

Duy Quang Pham¹, Christopher C Berndt¹, Jan Cizek², Uwe Gbureck³, Hala Zreiqat⁴, Zufu Lu⁴, Andrew Siao Ming Ang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Australian Research Council Training Centre for Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), School of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia; Australian Research Council Training Centre for Innovative BioEngineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
² Institute of Plasma Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
³ Department for Functional Materials in Medicine and Dentistry, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
⁴ Australian Research Council Training Centre for Innovative BioEngineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Research Unit, School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁵ Australian Research Council Training Centre for Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), School of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia; Australian Research Council Training Centre for Innovative BioEngineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Electronic address: aang@swin.edu.au.

PMID: 33641891
DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2021.111873

Abstract

This work studies the mechanical and biological properties of Baghdadite (BAG, Ca₃ZrSi₂O₉) coating manufactured on Ti6Al4V substrates by hybrid water-stabilized plasma spray (WSP-H). Hydroxyapatite (HAp, Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆(OH)₂) coating was produced by gas-stabilized atmospheric plasma spray and used as a reference material. Upon spraying, the BAG coating exhibited lower crystallinity than the HAp coating. Mechanical testing demonstrated superior properties of the BAG coating: its higher hardness, elastic modulus as well as a better resistance to scratch and wear. In the cell viability study, the BAG coating presented better human osteoblast attachment and proliferation on the coating surface after three days and seven days compared to the HAp counterpart. Furthermore, the gene expression study of human osteoblasts indicated that the BAG coating surface showed higher expression levels of osteogenic genes than those on the HAp coating. Overall, this study indicates that enhanced mechanical and bioactive properties can be achieved for the BAG coating compared to the benchmark HAp coating. It is therefore concluded here that the BAG coating is a potential candidate for coating orthopedic implants.

Keywords: Atmospheric plasma spray; Baghdadite; Calcium silicate bioceramics; Cell viability; Gene expression; Hybrid water-stabilized plasma spray; Hydroxyapatite; Mechanical properties; Nanoindentation.

MeSH terms

Ceramics* / pharmacology
Coated Materials, Biocompatible / pharmacology
Durapatite
Humans
Materials Testing
Silicates
Surface Properties
Water*

Substances

Ca(3)ZrSi(2)O(9)
Coated Materials, Biocompatible
Silicates
Water
Durapatite