Morphological and chemical characterisation of biomimetic bone like apatite formation on alkali treated Ti6Al4V titanium alloy

The present study is an attempt to enhance the apatite-forming ability of titanium metal induced by the alkaline (NaOH) treatment. A cell free culture medium, acellular DMEM solution was utilised to develop bone-like apatite on alkali-treated titanium alloy surface. The main advantage of this process is the development of bone like apatite with essential trace elements on the metallic substrate by using the DMEM culture medium as a soaking medium. The formed apatite deposits were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS). The obtained results suggest that the method utilized in this work can be successfully applied to obtain deposition of uniform coatings of crystalline hydroxyapatite on alkali treated titanium substrates.