Structured porous titania as a coating for implant materials

In this work a titania-based coating for implants was developed. By coating porous sintered titanium with dense xerogel-based titania layers and subsequent porous aerogel-based titania layers a biocomposite with a 3-fold structure can be achieved: (I) Large pores of 100 to 300 microns from the sintered titanium metal, (II) medium size hemispherical structures of several microns formed by the surfaces of the aerogel coatings, and (III) an intrinsic porosity of the aerogels in the nanometer scale. The coating process, material characteristics like phase composition and surface topography as well as the chemical properties are discussed The biocompatibility was tested by cultivation of foetal human osteoblast cell lines on the material.