Enhanced Multiple Surface Properties of Biometallic Materials by Laser Microprocessing

Abstract

Metallic materials have been widely used owing to their good mechanical property and high flexibility. However, there are certain limitations for practical applications such as low anti-bacterial, cell adhesion, surface wettability and corrosion resistance property. In this paper, laser microprocessing of titanium (Ti) alloy and magnesium (Mg) alloy has been conducted, respectively. The cell adhesion of Ti6Al4V alloy and Mg-Gd-Ca alloy after laser microprocessing has been investigated. The results show that MC3T3-E1 cells have been successfully adhered to the treated surface and optical density are significantly increased due to hybrid micro/nano structure. Anti-bacterial test shows that the anti-bacterial rates against E. coli of laser-treated surface was up to 72%. Meanwhile, water contact angle has been increased from 57.4° to 135.3° indicating the changing of surface wettability from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. Moreover, corrosion test of Mg-Gd-Ca alloy has been conducted, which has been significantly improved after laser microprocessing. The present work showed that laser surface microprocessing could be a promising technique for fabricating different biomedical property surfaces.