Hydroxyapatite coatings: a comparative study between plasma-spray and pulsed laser deposition techniques

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine Vol. 8; no. 12; pp. 861 - 865
• Main Authors: García-Sanz, F J, Mayor, M B, Arias, J L, Pou, J, León, B, Pérez-Amor, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Springer Nature B.V 01-12-1997
• Subjects: Biomedical materials; Hydroxyapatite; Materials science; Plasma; Scanning electron microscopy
• ISSN: 0957-4530; 1573-4838
• DOI: 10.1023/a:1018549720873

A comparative study between hydroxyapatite coatings produced by two different techniques, plasma spray (PS) and pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) was carried out. Plasma spray is currently commercially used for coating dental and orthopaedical implant devices, and pulsed-laser deposition (or laser-ablation deposition) gave good results in the field of high critical temperature superconductive thin films, and is being applied to produce calcium phosphate coatings for biomedical purposes. X-ray diffraction was used to control the crystallinity of the coatings, scanning electron microscopy for the surface and cross-sectional morphology, and the pull test to determine the tensile strength of the coatings. This study reveals that the pulsed-laser deposition technique appears to be a very good candidate to replace the plasma spray in many biomedical applications, because it overcomes most of the drawbacks of the plasma spray.