Solution process for synthesizing bioactive nano-mesh layer on Ti-based bulk metallic glasses

Ti based Bulk Metallic Glasses (BMGs) were treated by Hydrothermal (H), Electrochemical (E) and Hydrothermal-Electrochemical (H-E) processes in NaOH solution and all of these processes enabled fabrication of titanate nano-mesh structures on their surfaces. XPS data suggested that the amount of cytotoxic Cu was drastically decreased for the samples treated by H-E process. Specimens having nano-mesh structures on their surface were immersed in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF) for 12 days. The results of the SBF test supported the fact that nano-mesh structures fabricated by these three methods have bioactivity. However, only the specimen treated by H-E process exhibited very good adhesion performance between the induced hydroxyapatite layer and substrate with intermediated titanate nanomesh layer. These results indicated that the H-E process was the best among three to fabricate a low cytotoxic bioactive nano-mesh layer on Ti-based BMG which enabled to induce hydroxyapatite layer with strong adhesion.