Anodization of titanium alloys for orthopedic applications

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Metalurji ve Malzeme Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2018

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: MERVE İZMİR

Danışman: Batur Ercan

Özet:

In recent years, nanostructured oxide films on titanium alloy surfaces have gained significant interest due to their electrical, catalytic and biological properties, leading to an extensive effort to engineer nanostructured oxide films on titanium and titanium alloy surfaces. In literature, there is a variety of different approaches to fabricate nanostructured oxide films, including hydrothermal treatment, sol-gel synthesis, physical vapor deposition, electrodeposition, and etc. Among these methods, electrochemical fabrication processes have widely been explored due to their flexibility to control surface morphology at the micronscale and nanoscale. Anodization technique, which allows fine-tuning of oxide film thickness, feature size, topography and chemistry, is the most popular electrochemical approach to fabricate nanostructured oxide films on titanium alloys, and has been investigated for orthopedic and biomedical applications by multiple research groups. Briefly, anodization is the growth of a controlled oxide film on the surface of a metallic component attached to the anode of an electrochemical cell. This thesis explores the use of anodization of titanium alloys for orthopedic applications. In this thesis, micropit structures were grown on Ti6Al4V surfaces via anodization using fluoride free electrolytes consisting of NH4Cl in distilled water. Furthermore, nanotubular structures were fabricated via anodization of Ti6Al7Nb surfaces in fluoride electrolyte. Fabricated surface structures were characterized for their physical and chemical properties and the bioactivity of the surfaces were determined by soaking samples in simulated body fluid up to 30 days. The thesis concludes with areas requiring further research to successfully translate anodized titanium alloys to clinics for orthopedic applications.