Development of nano-hydroxyapatite coating by electrohydrodynamic atomization spraying

Electrohydrodynamic atomisation (EHDA) spraying of a hydroxyapatite (HA) suspension consisting of nano-particles (nHA) has been used to produce a HA coating comprising of nanostructured surface topography. In EHDA the suspension is jetted from a needle under an electric field. Obtaining the stable cone-jet mode of EHDA is critical to improve the quality and optimise the morphology of HA coatings, therefore a systematic investigation of the effects of several key processing parameters, such as suspension flow rate, applied voltage and distance between the needle and substrate, and needle size was carried out in this work. The HA coatings processed under different spraying parameters were compared and then scored according to uniformity and microstructural integrity. It was found that all of these parameters had a very significant influence on the morphology of nHA coating prepared. Under an optimised processing condition, where a needle orifice diameter of 300 μm, kept at a distance of 20 mm from the substrate, a flow rate of 20 μL/min, and the applied voltage kept within 4.3 kV and 5.2 kV, a uniform nHA coating was obtained. This is a crucial step forward in obtaining advanced nano-hydroxyapatite coatings of high quality for biomedical applications by using EHDA spraying.