Artículos SCI

Bacterial colonization and biofilm formation on orthopedic implants is one of the worst scenarios in orthopedic surgery, in terms of both patient prognosis and healthcare costs. Tailoring the surfaces of implants at the nanoscale to actively promote bone bonding while avoiding bacterial colonization represents an interesting challenge to achieving better clinical outcomes. Herein, a Ti6Al4V alloy of medical grade has been coated with Ti nanostructures employing the glancing angle deposition technique by magnetron sputtering. The resulting surfaces have a high density of nanocolumnar structures, which exhibit strongly impaired bacterial adhesion that inhibits biofilm formation, while osteoblasts exhibit good cell response with similar behavior to the initial substrates. These results are discussed on the basis of a "lotus leaf effect" induced by the surface nanostructures and the different sizes and biological characteristics of osteoblasts and Staphylococcus aureus.

Four materials TixTa(1 - x)C(0.5)N(0.5)-20%Co of two chemical compositions (x = 0.9 and 0.95) and two high energy milling methods (one stage and two stage milling) have been prepared. Nano-hardness and elastic modulus for microstructure as a whole and for individual constituent phases (matrix and carbide grains) were obtained by instrumented indentation. Individual targeted indentations as well as grid nanoindentation technique were used to discern the individual constituents' properties. Maximum loads of 20 mN for individual phases and 300 mN for composite microstructure were applied. Materials with higher amount of Ti had larger grains but the milling procedure had stronger influence on the grain size. The two step milling resulted in finer microstructures but with a much wider grain size distribution. Final composite mechanical properties, however, were very similar. Hardness and indentation elasticity modulus of all materials were comparable within the errors of measurement.