Joint replacement is being actively developed within modern orthopedics. One novel material providing fast implantation is bioactive coatings. The synthesis of targeted nanocoatings on metallic nanotitanium surface is reported in this paper. TiO₂-based micro- and nanocoatings were produced by sol-gel synthesis using dip-coating technology with subsequent fast (shock) drying in hot plate mode at 400 °C. As a result of shock drying, the two-level hierarchical TiO₂ nanolayer on the nanotitanium was obtained. This two-level hierarchy includes nanorelief of porous xerogel and microrelief of the micron-sized “defect” network (a crack network). The thickness of TiO₂ nanolayers was controlled by repeating dip-coating process the necessary number of times after the first layer deposition. The state of the MS3T3-E1 osteoblast cell line (young cells that form bone tissue) on the two-level hierarchical surface has been studied. Particularly, adhesion character, adhesion time and morphology have been studied. The reported results may serve the starting point for the development of novel bioactive coatings for bone and teeth implants.

In this work, we analyze the efficiency of the modification of the implant surface. This modification was reached by the formation of a two-level relief hierarchy by means of a sol-gel approach that included dip coating with subsequent shock drying. Using this method, we fabricated a nanoporous layer with micron-sized defects on the nanotitanium surface. The present work continues an earlier study by our group, wherein the effect of osteoblast-like cell adhesion acceleration was found. In the present paper, we give the results of more detailed evaluation of coating efficiency. Specifically, cytological analysis was performed that included the study of the marker levels of osteoblast-like cell differentiation. We found a significant increase in the activity of alkaline phosphatase at the initial incubation stage. This is very important for implantation, since such an effect assists the decrease in the induction time of implant engraftment. Moreover, osteopontin expression remains high for long expositions. This indicates a prolonged osteogenic effect in the coating. The results suggest the acceleration of the pre-implant area mineralization and, correspondingly, the potential use of the developed coatings for bone implantation.

This work is devoted to the development of non-lithographic template methods of synthesis. These methods have a significant advantage in terms of structure formation: there is no need to design and produce masks, which greatly simplifies the process, and more of them can work with nonplanar substrates. The purpose of this study was to reveal the conditions for the synthesis of titanium dioxide xerogel films of different topologies as well as to develop a technique for non-lithographic template electrochemical synthesis of micron metal particles arrays and to study the structure of the resulting coatings. The films were deposited on the surface of substrates via dip coating. Specific topology of the films was achieved by template sol-gel synthesis. Their structures were analyzed by SEM and XRD. Template synthesis of metal micro particles were realized by pulsed electrochemical deposition of metals into the perforations of xerogel films. Obtained materials were analyzed by SEM and XRD; the element distribution on the surface was determined by the EDS detector of SEM. Based on the analysis results, we suggest the mechanisms of formation of the xerogel topology and proved the efficiency of pulsed electrodeposition for template synthesis of micron particles arrays.