Research Information System
MATERIALS TODAY COMMUNICATIONS, vol.47, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
In this study, porous 316 L stainless steel (316 L SS) implants with regular octahedron unit cells were fabricated using the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) technique. Subsequently, the surfaces of these three-dimensionally (3D)-printed porous 316 L SS samples were electrochemically modified in an ethylene glycol solution containing 5.83 % (v/v) perchloric acid at 40 V for 10 min to create rod-like nanostructures with a feature size of 400 +/- 86 nm-not reported previously for a lattice structure in the literature. These nanostructures arose due to the revelation of the sub-grain cellular microstructure, which is a typical feature of the additively manufactured metals. Electrochemical analysis revealed that surface-treated samples exhibited higher open circuit potential (OCP) values than their unmodified counterparts, indicating improved corrosion resistance. Moreover, osteoblast viability assay demonstrated that the rod-like nanostructures on the 3D-printed porous 316 L SS samples promoted osteoblast proliferation for up to five days in vitro. Additionally, the elastic modulus of the non-modified samples (3.1 +/- 0.7 GPa) and the anodically surface-modified samples (3.4 +/- 0.4 GPa) were comparable to that of cancellous bone, and surface modification did not compromise the compressive strength. Overall, these findings suggest that anodically surface-modified 316 L SS lattices hold promise for further investigation in orthopedic applications.