Hydroxyapatite coatings: a comparative study between plasma-spray and pulsed laser deposition techniques.
A comparative study between hydroxyapatite coatings produced by two different techniques, plasma spray (PS) and pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) was carried out. Plasma spray is currently commercially used for coating dental and orthopaedical implant devices, and pulsed-laser deposition (or laser-ablation deposition) gave good results in the field of high critical temperature superconductive thin films, and is being applied to produce calcium phosphate coatings for biomedical purposes. X-ray diffraction was used to control the crystallinity of the coatings, scanning electron microscopy for the surface and cross-sectional morphology, and the pull test to determine the tensile strength of the coatings. This study reveals that the pulsed-laser deposition technique appears to be a very good candidate to replace the plasma spray in many biomedical applications, because it overcomes most of the drawbacks of the plasma spray.
García-Sanz
F J
FJ
Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidade de Vigo, Lagoas-Macrosende 9, 36.200 Vigo, Spain.
Mayor
M B
MB
Arias
J L
JL
Pou
J
J
León
B
B
Pérez-Amor
M
M