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The deposition of strontium-substituted hydroxyapatite coatings

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine volume 26, Article number: 65 (2015) Cite this article

Abstract

Strontium substituted hydroxyapatite (SrHA) coatings have received a lot of interest recently as strontium (Sr) has been shown to have the dual benefit of promoting bone formation and reducing bone resorption, in vivo. In this work, SrHA coatings were deposited onto polycrystalline titanium surfaces using radio frequency (RF) magnetron co-sputtering and compared to those deposited from HA alone. In particular, the influence of different levels of Sr-substitution of the sputtering targets (5 and 13 % Sr-substituted HA targets) on the properties of the deposited coatings produced at a low discharge power level (150 W) were investigated using FTIR, XPS, XRD, ToFSIMS and AFM techniques (both before and after annealing at 500 °C). The results show that Sr could be successfully incorporated into the HA lattice to form SrHA coatings and that they contained no other impurities. However, the coating produced from the 13 % Sr-substituted target had a higher Ca + Sr/P ratio (1.95 ± 0.14) and Sr content when compared to the coating produced from the 5 % Sr-substituted target (1.58 ± 0.20). The deposition rate also decreased with increasing Sr content of the sputtering targets. Furthermore, as the Sr content of the coatings increased, so did the preferred 002 orientation of the coating along with increased surface roughness and heterogeneity of the surface features. Therefore, this study has shown that RF magnetron sputtering offers a means to control attendant properties of Sr-substituted HA, such as the crystallinity, stoichiometry, phase purity and surface topography.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Ph. D. funding provided by of the Department of Learning (Northern Ireland) to support this work.

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Affiliations

  1. Nanotechnology and Integrated Bioengineering Centre (NIBEC), School of Engineering, University of Ulster, Room 25B14, Shore Road, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, BT37 0QB, UK

    Adrian R. Boyd, L. Rutledge, I. Mutreja & B. J. Meenan

  2. Louvain Drug Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium

    L. D. Randolph

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  1. Adrian R. Boyd
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  2. L. Rutledge
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Correspondence to Adrian R. Boyd.

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Boyd, A.R., Rutledge, L., Randolph, L.D. et al. The deposition of strontium-substituted hydroxyapatite coatings. J Mater Sci: Mater Med 26, 65 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-014-5377-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-014-5377-z

Keywords

  • Precursor Powder
  • Radio Frequency Magnetron
  • Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy
  • Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtering
  • Stylus Profilometry