Surface characteristics of Ti6Al4V-EDM implant engineered by PVD coated-etching and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans based-biomachining

Presented study aims to characterize the surface implant engineered by PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coated-etching and biomachining. The material used is Ti6Al4V manufactured by electrical discharge machining (EDM). Copper (Cu) was used as its electrode material. The results show that acid etching and it followed by PVD coating (ΔRa 51%) were able to decrease the average of surface roughness (Ra) of original EDM to moderately rough category compared to biomachined samples (ΔRa 31%). SEM and EDS observations indicated that Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans were not capable of removing Cu effectively in its condition as a contaminant on the Ti6Al4V surface. Moreover, significant increasing of the percentage of element weight (wt%) of Oxygen (O) generated by the biomachining can be applied as an alternative to the PVD coating (wt% O 8,9) to enhance the bioactivity of the etched implant. On the other hand, the contact angles generated by the biomachined samples prove that the surface is hydrophobic in nature ...