Fully Inorganic Electrodeposition of Pure Aragonite Prismatic-like Textured Layers on Titanium Foils

Abstract

This work shows the capabilities of a specific method to synthesize pseudo-hexagonal prismatic-like layers on titanium foils without any organic matrix intervention, in constrast to mollusc shell growth. Using an electrochemical method of deposition, pure aragonite layers are obtained, which exhibit good texture strengths and pseudo-hexagonal crystals. The aragonite crystals grow with the c-axes orthogonal to the titanium foil surface without in-plane orientation, which resembles textures exhibited in nacre layers of some gastropods such as Haliotis haliotis with however lower texture strengths. It turns out that if organic materials can magnify textural characteristics in many aragonite-based layers, the inorganic influence is intrinsically large. This work will serve as a basis for mimicking synthetic hybrid layers by electrochemistry targeting osteoinductivity, with the view of substituting actual biocompatible, but inert, implants, and exemplifies the inorganic role played in the growth process of natural shells.