Guillemot, F.; Porte, M. C.; Labrugere, C.; Baquey, Ch.

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science (2002), 255(1), 75-78 CODEN: JCISA5; ISSN: 0021-9797. English.

Because of the Ti3+ defects responsibility for dissociative adsorption of water onto TiO2 surfaces and due to the hydroxyls influence on the biol. behavior of titanium, controlling the Ti3+ surface defects density by means of low-temperature vacuum annealing is proposed to improve the bone/implant interactions. Expts. have been carried out on Ti-6Al-4V alloys exhibiting a porous surface generated primarily by chem. treatment. XPS investigations have shown that low-temperature vacuum annealing can create a controlled number of Ti3+ defects (up to 21% Ti3+/Ti4+ at 573 K). High Ti3+ defect concentration is linked to surface porosity. Such surfaces, exhibiting high hydrophilicity and microporosity, would confer to titanium biomaterials a great ability to interact with surrounding proteins and cells and hence would favor the bone anchorage of as-treated implants.