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Project

Development and functionalisation of biomedical implant surfaces.

Due to the aging population and increasingly active lifestyle, the need for cheaper and fast stabilised dental and orthopaedic implants will drastically increase in the future. In order to promote bone adhesion, the surface of most Ti-based biomedical devices at present are roughened or vacuum plasma sprayed with a rough, relatively dense Ti layer. The challenge of the proposed research is to establish a cheap and fast innovative processing route that allows realising metallic coatings with adjustable porous and biologically active properties. The porous surface layer needs to be bioactive in order to stimulate bone formation allowing reducing the inactive time of the patient and also increase the implant life time. Due to the higher number of diabetic and obese patients, post-surgery complications are rapidly becoming a significant reason for implant failure. Coating the implant with bone forming cells and/or bone growth stimulating proteins in a bacteria-free environment prior to surgery will improve the chances for successful implant osteointegration. This project aims to realize and evaluate porous functional coatings through a phased emulsion based deposition of (bioactive) materials in combination with a controlled deposition of bone forming cells and signalling proteins using unbalanced AC-fields in electrophoretic deposition (AC-EPD).
Date:1 Oct 2010 →  30 Sep 2011
Keywords:Particle stabilized emulsions, Porous structures, Titanium, Signal proteins, Bone forming cells, Electrophoretic deposition (EPD), Implants
Disciplines:Other engineering and technology