The challenge and promise of low-temperature bioceramic coatings: An editorial

Low-temperature coating deposition is carried out at or near ambient temperature temperatures, much below the incongruent melting point of hydroxyapatite. However, frequently post-depositional heat treatment must be applied to either crystallise amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP), transform (dehydrated/dehydroxylated) precursor phases such as octacalcium phosphate to hydroxyapatite, and/or to remove organic compounds used in coating preparation, for example during sol–gel, dip coating, electrochemical, and electrophoretic deposition. The contributions to this Special Issue deal predominately with low-temperature deposition of hydroxyapatite coatings applied by electrochemical deposition (ECD), plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), electrophoretic deposition (EPD), and ion-beam assisted deposition (IBAD) to the surfaces of Ti6Al4V, cp-Ti, CoCrMo, Mg, as well as Zr and PEEK substrates.