Nanostructured Titanium: The Ideal Material for Improving Orthopedic Implant Efficacy?

Abstract

Titanium (Ti) and its alloys have been widely used as implant materials for orthopedic applications owing to their excellent wear, corrosion resistance, light weight but strong mechanical and acceptable biocompatibility properties. However, such implants still widely experience lifetimes of less than 20 years owing to a variety of reasons eventually leading to implant separation from bone. In 1999, Webster et al. provided the first evidence that osteoblast (bone-forming cells) adhesion and bone formation significantly increases on nanostructured titania compared with conventional titania [1]. Since then, nanotechnology (or the use of materials with dimensions less than 100 nm in at least 1D) have been proposed to improve the quality of orthopedic implants by better mimicking the nanoscale properties of native bone tissue.