A NEW REACTOR GEOMETRY TO TREATMENT IN SCALE OF BIOMEDICAL SURFACES BY PLASMA ELECTROLYTIC OXIDATION

The state of the art report many studies seeking for biocompatible materials for manufacturing and processing of implants, mainly, for orthopedic and dental care. A wide spectrum of surface modification techniques are available, such as chemical vapor deposition, anodizing, plasma spraying and plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO). Among these techniques, PEO is an attractive technique for biomedical applications once that its characteristics favor the osseointegration. Hitherto, the literature reports that all designed reactors are limited to processing a single sample at a time. A second limitation of the existing reactors, in terms of geometry, is the difficulty to obtain a uniform treatment on poly faceted pieces. In this context, the present study aimed to design, develop and manufacture a new reactor geometry to surface treatments, scaling it and with better uniformity. The prototype validation was performed through treatments of cylindrical titanium samples in electrolytic bath for 1, 8 and 16 minutes. To characterize the thickness of the coating on the samples, optical microscopy and scanning electronic microscopy were used. For the coating chemical, characterization technique such as energy dispersive spectroscopy, were applied. The wettability study was performed using the sessile drop method. The new reactor designed geometry presented promising results once that it was capable to produce homogeneous, porous hydrophilic coatings, and mechanical resistance to contact. The new reactor has shown ability to scale production. Finally, it is believed that there is a reduction in production costs because the same solution is used to a set of samples.