Investigation of in vitro behavior of plasma sprayed Ti, TiO2 and HA coatings on PEEK

Orthopedic implants are one of the most reliable and widely used equipments to increase the quality of human life by enhancing or replacing damaged body parts and ensuring the problematic parts of the body to become operative after a short time period. Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) is a semi-crystal high-performance thermoplastic polymeric implant material which emerged as an alternative for metallic implants that used in orthopedic surgery. Although PEEK has some superior properties such as high melting point, superb wear resistance, excellent fatigue behavior, non-toxicity for bone tissue and elasticity modulus similar to human bone, PEEK has some disadvantages such as biologically inert behavior and low bioactivity. In this context, coating the implant surface to improve its osteointegration behavior is widely accepted. Coating PEEK polymers with bioactive materials such as Hydroxyapatite (HA) is among one of the solutions for this problem. In this study, in order to increase surface bioactivity of PEEK biomaterials, Titanium (Ti), Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and Hydroxyapatite (HA) powder combinations was coated on PEEK samples by using Atmospheric Plasma Spray (APS) method. Morphological and chemical characterization showed produced coatings are suitable for implantation process. Also in vitro tests performed in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF) revealed that HA, Ti + HA and TiO2 + HA coatings have bioactive property.