Effect of various sterilization methods on the bioactivity of laser ablation pseudowollastonite coating

Abstract

Sterilization is required for using any material or device in contact with the human body. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of four sterilization methods (steam autoclave, hydrogen peroxide plasma, ethylene oxide, and gamma sterilization) on the surface chemistry and in vitro bioactivity of pseudowollastonite (psW) coatings in titanium alloys substrates. psW coatings in Ti-6Al-4V substrates obtained by laser ablation technique were sterilized and immersed in Kokubo's simulated body fluid (SBF) up to 30 days. No changes in the chemical composition were noted after sterilization. However, a Ca/P-layer of different thickness, identified as hydroxyapatite (HA) like was developed on all the samples after soaking, although, the ethylene oxide sterilized samples present a nonhomogeneous and approximately 55.9% thinner HA-like layer.