| Implant materials were made from metals such as titanium for a long period of time. Despite their good mechanical properties, metals and their alloys may be toxic for the human body. New materials have been developed for orthopedic implants and artificial teeth. Among these materials, Hap, which is known for its high biological activity and its unique property to integrate with bones, has attracted attention. Different techniques for HAp based biomaterials synthesis (mechanical methods, co-precipitation, biomimetic procedure, hydrothermal procedure) are described in literature. Hydrothermal synthesis offers many advantages over conventional and non-conventional ceramic synthetic methods. Hydrothermal synthesis is a technology for crystallizing materials (chemical compounds) directly from aqueous solution by adept control of thermodynamic variables (temperature, pressure, composition). The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the enhanced biocompatibility of HAp thin films starting from hydrothermal synthesized powders. Hydrothermal synthesized HAp was deposited on pure titanium substrates by PLD (pulsed laser deposition) at 400° °C in water vapor and in oxygen atmosphere, the pressure value was in the range from 3.5*10-1 to 10-1 torr. Biocompatibility tests performed on coated titanium showed the ability of the HAp layer to promote cell growth on the surface. |
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