Titanium Implant Devices: Increase Biocompatibility or Decrease Drug Release Rate? | Biomedgrid

Titanium and its alloys are the most used metallic materials for the manufacture of orthopedic and dental prostheses due to their similarities to human bone. Among these properties, the hardness and Young's modulus stand out, besides being chemically inert and presenting low corrosion potential in biological environments [1]. Its low corrosion rate is due to the formation of a TiO2 layer, also known as a “barrier oxide” responsible for metal passivation. TiO2 formation is a thermodynamically favorable process, and an oxide of a few nanometer thicknesses is formed as soon as the metal is exposed to an oxygen-containing environment. Due to this factor, the characteristics of the coating can be easily experimentally manipulated. One of the techniques that have been widely used for implant surface modification is anodization. Through this technique, it is possible to create from compact films, as pores of the order of micrometers, or even nanotubes that can have diameters ranging from 30-100nm [2, 3].