Nano spray drying: A novel technique to prepare well-defined surface coatings for medical implants

Abstract

Medical implants could face several complications after being placed in their designated site. Biofilm formation on the implant surface, unwanted host response due to lack of biocompatibility, and slow tissue regeneration rate can lead to implant failure. Therefore, medical implants should be modified to be able to overcome these challenges. This work presents a novel approach for coating medical implants with nanoparticles of different biomaterials using nano spray drying. The particles were produced and deposited on the implants in a single-step by utilizing the electrostatic particle collector. Preliminary experiments were performed on titanium plates to optimize the process parameters. Three model substances were chosen, namely chitosan, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) and curcumin. Additionally, the influence of the implant position inside the particle collector on the particle size distribution was evaluated. Scanning electron microscopy revealed spherical shaped particles in all formulations and the bottom part of the collector had the particles with narrowest size distribution. The optimized parameters were thereafter successfully applied on dental implants. Scanning electron microscopy results of the dental implants were similar to those of preliminary experiments which confirmed the reproducibility of this coating technique. The outcomes of this study proved that this technique is highly efficient, time-saving and cost-effective.