Fatigue Behavior and Apatite Precipitation of Plasma-Sprayed HAp Coating on Commercially Pure Titanium Substrate in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF)

Plasma sprayed Hydroxyapatite (HAp) coating on commercially pure titanium (cp-Ti) is widely used as implant materials. In this study, fatigue behavior of as-sprayed HAp top coat with HAp/Ti bond coat specimen under ambient environment (A-HTi) as well as under simulated body fluid, SBF, environment (I-HTi) at 36.5 degrees C was investigated by four point bending fatigue test at a stress amplitude of 170 MPa under various frequencies. In order to investigate apatite precipitation during fatigue loading, the test specimen was immersed in SBF at 36.5 degrees C during the fatigue test. For comparison, the test specimen was immersed in SBF at 36.5 degrees C for a day to a week without fatigue loading and then the fatigue test of the immersed specimen was carried out under ambient environment (I-A-HTi). The fatigue loading would not influence the apatite precipitation in the HAp coating layer of the specimen. The fatigue lives of the I-HTi and I-A-HTi specimens were shorter compared to that of A-HTi specimen. The shorter fatigue lives of the 1-HTi and I-A-HTi specimens would result from the attack of SBF on titanium substrate. However, the apatite precipitation in the coating layer up to one week immersion did not significantly influence the delamination between HAp top coat and cp-Ti substrate under the bending fatigue.