"Frictional and adhesive behavior of organic-inorganic hybrid coatings on surgical grade stainless steel using nano-scratching technique"

JOSEFINA BALLARRE, DAMIÁN A. LÓPEZ, ANA L. CAVALIERI

WEAR

Elsevier

Año: 2009 vol. 266 p. 1165 - 1170

0043-1648

Abstract The most widely used materials as orthopaedic implants are metals because of their mechanical properties. However they cannot provide a natural bond with the mineralized bone and they also release metallic particles due to degradation or tribologic events. One way to improve the metallic implants performance is to apply protective organic-inorganic sol-gel coatings. These thin films provide the implant the capability to be a bio-inert or bioactive connector between the metallic prosthesis and the bone tissue. In this work, stainless steel substrates are coated with films made by a sol-gel technique from organosilane precursors as tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), methyl triethoxysilane (MTES), methacrylopropyl trimethoxysilane (gMPS) and hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) in acid catalysis. Although mechanical properties of similar films have been studied, there is no information about friction coefficient or adhesion of silica based hybrid films to stainless steel substrates. The aim of this work is to start to understand the frictional and adhesive behavior of organic-inorganic hybrid silica based thin coatings deposited on stainless steel used in orthopaedic surgery, employing the nano-scratching technique.