Ca-doped zirconia mesoporous coatings for biomedical applications: A physicochemical and biological investigation

In this work, the effects of surface chemistry and nano-topography of un-doped and Ca-doped zirconia coatings were investigated. The study aimed at providing new insight on how to improve the interfacial properties and biocompatibility of metallic and ceramic biomedical implants for hard tissue applications through the surface modification treatments. To this end, pure and Ca-doped zirconia mesoporous coatings were prepared by wet synthesis and structure self-assembly. The physicochemical properties of mesoporous surfaces were investigated by TEM and XRD. In addition, contact angle and XPS unveiled the wettability and surface chemistry of zirconia surfaces. Our findings highlight the role of Ca in increasing stability of the mesoporous structure at high calcination temperature, applied to remove the templating agent. In vitro assays focused on the proliferation of Saos-2 human osteoblastic cells on the meso-structured zirconia coatings, which resulted to be enhanced on Ca-doped surfaces.