Nanomechanical properties of zirconium anodized in a mixture of electrolytes with fluoride ions.

Aida Pantazi, Maria Vardaki, Geanina Mihai, Georgeta Totea, Ioana Demetrescu, Marius Enachescu

Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 2020 Dec

filter terms:

The present work introduces nanostructured Zr as a possible choice of metallic implant biomaterial in competition with titanium and its new alloys. The paper reports on the preparation of anodized zirconium in a mixture of electrolytes with fluoride ions, 1 M (NH4)2SO4 + 0.15 M NH4F + distilled water, at 20 V. The obtained nanostructures were investigated by SEM, EDX, XRD and AFM techniques. The SEM - EDX longitudinal and cross sectional analysis revealed the morphology of the formed oxide layers and their thicknesses, which were found to be 7.45 ± 0.18 μm. The mean nanopores' diameter was calculated as 15.8 ± 3.3 nm. The XRD investigations enabled the evaluation of crystallite sizes and texture coefficients for zirconium and zirconium oxide containing samples. The inhibition effect against Escherichia coli and Streptococcus Aureus bacteria was evaluated and discussed as well. The AFM studies revealed that the nano-porous Zr has similar hardness parameter as the uncoated Zr, but lower surface adhesion force that could be translated into improved properties in terms of antimicrobial effects, as confirmed by its inhibition index, which makes it a very promising material for bio-medical applications. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Aida Pantazi, Maria Vardaki, Geanina Mihai, Georgeta Totea, Ioana Demetrescu, Marius Enachescu. Nanomechanical properties of zirconium anodized in a mixture of electrolytes with fluoride ions. Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials. 2020 Dec;112:104084