Microwave-Assisted Niobium Reinforced Hydroxyapatite Coating on Ti-Alloy via Multi Response Optimization Technique Using Experimentally Obtained Parameters
摘要
Biocompatibility is the foremost criteria in selection of an implant material, and it is influenced by the surface properties of the material to a great extent. Bioactive hydroxyapatite (HAP) coating has been found to improve the biocompatibility of the implants. Hence, here an attempt was made to achieve desired biocompatibility of Ti6Al4V sheets by coating it with niobium reinforced hydroxyapatite (Nb-HAP) via microwave irradiation. While performing the pilot experiments, it was observed that the input parameters such as irradiation power (Watt), doping percentage of niobium (%) and time of exposure (min) greatly affect the physical and biological properties of the coatings. Hence establishing an optimal setting for these factors was essential for obtaining desired biocompatibility. Grey based Taguchi analysis was employed to optimize the input factors for achieving the desired levels of hemocompatibility i.e., least hemolysis rate (%), a prolonged clotting initiation and highest adsorption of blood-plasma protein from the experimental data. Finally, a confirmatory test was run to validate the proposed model yielding the optimised set of input factors as irradiation power of 900 W, doping of Nb as 10% and time of exposure as 5 min. Analysis of variance showed that all the suggested models exhibit very good fit (R2 > 95). Furthermore, modelling of semi-empirical expressions for the responses were dimensionally analysed using Buckingham’s π theorem, which confirmed the dependence of the responses on doping %. The physical characterization of the coated samples with standard characterization techniques confirmed the presence of uniform hydrophilic coating which can be expected to show better cell adhesion.