TITANIUM-ZIRCONIUM COATINGS FORMED BY ELECTRICAL EXPLOSION METHOD ON A TITANIUM IMPLANT SURFACE

The development of biocompatible low-modulus β-alloys, in particular, Ti-Zr and Ti-Nb systems, became a new direction in medical materials science. The study of physicochemical and morphological properties and the structure of implants is one of the priority tasks of condensed matter physics and medical materials science. The search for the optimal set of coating parameters that provides the greatest mechanical and biological compatibility or inertness with bone tissue is one of the modern trends in the application of bio-coatings on a surface of metal implants. In the current work, the authors set and solve the problem of the formation of a bioinert Ti-Zr system coating using an advanced technique of electroexplosive deposition. Using the electroexplosion method, Ti-Zr composition coatings were produced on the surface of a titanium dental implant (VT6 alloy). The authors used scanning and transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis to determine the elemental and phase composition and to study morphology and defective substructure of the coating. Hardness and Young’s modulus, friction coefficient and wear resistance of the produced coating were determined. The formation of a Ti-Zr composition coating causes an insignificant (relative to a substrate without coating) decrease in the wear parameter (increase in wear resistance) of a surface layer (by 18 %), 1.5 times increase in the friction coefficient, a slight (3 %) increase in hardness, and a decrease in Young’s modulus by 64 %. It is established that the electroexplosive coating is multi-element and multi-phase; it has submicro- and nano-crystalline structure. High strength and tribological properties of the coating formed by the electroexplosion method are caused by the release of nanosized particles of the carbide and oxide phases detected by the X-ray phase analysis.

electroexplosive deposition, bioinert coating, niobium, Ti-Zr coating, Ti-Nb coating