Abstract
To improve the biotribological properties of Ti6Al4V alloy for artificial joints, motivated by the composite structure of ‘natural articular cartilage - subchondral bone’ and the hydration lubrication mechanism of articular cartilage, a soft/hard bilayer coating composed of a porous TiO 2 layer and a zwitterionic hydrogel coating was designed and fabricated on Ti6Al4V alloy through micro-arc oxidation (MAO) combined with ultraviolet (UV) radiation technology. Characterization results revealed that the bio-inspired bilayer coating could be successfully constructed on Ti6Al4V alloy, and such a coating displayed good hydrophilicity (WCA: 32°). Notably, by ball - on - disk friction test, this biomimetic bilayer coating exhibited an ultra-low friction coefficient (∼0.038) in PBS solution, which was reduced by an order of magnitude compared with that of the Ti6Al4V alloy substrate. This was due to the synergistic effects of soft/hard composite structure and the hydration lubrication of zwitterionic MPC polymer. This work provides a novel and effective strategy for surface modification of Ti6Al4V alloy for artificial joints.
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