PROCESSING AND PERFORMANCE OF FLUORAPATITE SURFACE LAYER ON POROUS ZIRCONIA TAPES

ALBANO MP; FERNANDEZ JM; GARRIDO LM

Congreso; 12° Congreso Binacional de Metalurgia y Materiales SAM/CONAMET 2012; 2012

Fluorapatite (FA) layers on ZrO2 substrates have been fabricated by dipping porous zirconia tapes into aqueous 27.4 vol.% fluorapatite slurries. Porous ZrO2 tapes with 31.4 vol.% porosity were developed using starch as fugitive additive; for comparison, tapes with 12.7 vol.% porosity were fabricated without starch. The influence of the porous structure of the tape surfaces, top and bottom, on the casting rate and consequently on the layer thickness formed on each surface was studied. Cell proliferation studies of FA coated ZrO2 were carried out using osteoblast-like cell line (MC3T3E1) and compared with pure ZrO2. Layers formed on the top surface were found to be about 55 and 32 % thicker than those formed on the bottom surface for the tapes fabricated with and without starch, respectively. The FA coating on the top surface of ZrO2 increased the proliferation of osteoblastic cells by 40-50% when compared to ZrO2 substrate.