Fabrication and apatite inducing ability of different porous titania structures by PEO treatment

Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) was employed to grow different porous titania structures on Ti6Al4V alloy (TC4) substrate using various parameters. It was found that the PEO voltage and working frequency could affect the morphology, the pore size, the pore density, the thickness and the phase composition of titania structures. Thereafter, three typical porous titania structures with nanosize pores, microsize pores and microsize grooves were respectively selected to estimate their bioactivity using SBF immersion test. After soaking at different durations (3-28 d), the surface morphology, the chemical composition as well as the phase structure of deposited apatite layers on porous titania were evaluated using SEM, EDS, and XRD. The formation of various biomimetic apatite layers indicated the different influence due to the characteristics of porous titania structures. The porous titania structure with nanosize pores could induce a fast apatite growth at the early immersion stage (~ 7 d), while the one with microsize pores exhibited the best apatite inducing ability at long term immersion (~ 28 d). Based on the experimental results, the formation mechanism of biomimetic apatite affected by the pore structure of titania was discussed as well.