A Study of Hydroxyapatite Coating on Porous Ti Compact by Electrostatic Spray Deposition

Coatings of hydroxyapatite (HA) on the porous-surfaced Ti compact have been conducted by electrostatic spray deposition (EDS). The precursor solution for the HA coating by ESD was prepared by mixing nano-scaled HA powder with ethyl alcohol. As-deposited HA films on the substrate were heat-treated (400 ~ 900 °C) and their physical characteristics were investigated by Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM), X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), and X-ray Photoelectronic Spectroscopy (XPS). As-deposited HA films were consisted of HA particles which were uniformly distributed on the Ti substrate, showing a porous structure. By heat treatment, HA particles were agglomerated each other and melted to form a highly dense and homogeneous coating layer consisted of equiaxed nano-scaled grains. HA coatings on the porous-surfaced Ti compact consisted of highly crystalline apatite phase with the Ca/P ratio of about 1.67 were successfully obtained by using ESD.