Surface characterization and corrosion behavior of micro-arc oxidized Ti surface modified with hydrothermal treatment and chitosan coating

In the present work, we describe the surface modification of commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti) by a composite/multilayer coating approach for biomedical applications. CP-Ti samples were treated by micro-arc oxidation (MAO) and subsequently some of the samples were coated with chitosan (Chi) by dip coating method, while others were subjected to hydrothermal treatment (HT) followed by chitosan coating. The MAO, MAO/Chi, and MAO/HT/Chi coated Ti were characterized and their characteristics were compared with CP-Ti. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were used to assess the structural and morphological characteristics. The average surface roughness was determined using a surface profilometer. The corrosion resistance of untreated and surface modified Ti in commercial saline at 298 K was evaluated by potentiodynamic polarization test. The results indicated that the chitosan coating is very well integrated with the MAO and MAO/HT coating by physically interlocking itself with the coated layer and almost sealed all the pores. The surface roughness of hydrothermally treated and chitosan coated MAO film was superior evidently to that with other sample groups. The corrosion studies demonstrated that the MAO, hydrothermally treated and chitosan coated sample enhanced the corrosion resistance of titanium. The result indicates that fabrication of hydrothermally treated MAO surface coatings with chitosan is a significant approach to protect the titanium from corrosion, hence enhancing the potential use of titanium as bio-implants.