Sol–gel derived bioactive glasses have been extensively explored as a promising and highly porous scaffold materials for bone tissue regeneration applications owing to their exceptional osteoconductivity, osteostimulation and degradation rates.

Titanium is commonly and successfully used in dental and orthopedic implants. However, patients still have to face the risk of implant failure due to various reasons, such as implant loosening or infection. The risk of implant loosening can be countered by optimizing the osteointegration capacity of implant materials. Implant surface modifications for structuring, roughening and biological activation in favor for osteogenic differentiation have been vastly studied. A key factor for a successful stable long‐term integration is the initial cellular response to the implant material. Hence, cell–material interactions, which are dependent on the surface parameters, need to be considered in the implant design. Therefore, this review starts with an introduction to the basics of cell–material interactions as well as common surface modification techniques. Afterwards, recent research on the impact of osteogenic processes in vitro and vivo provoked by various surface modifications is reviewed and discussed, in order to give an update on currently applied and developing implant modification techniques for enhancing osteointegration.

A pulsed Nd : YAG laser ablation of FeS in water and ethanol produces FeS-derived colloidal nanoparticles that absorb onto immersed porous ceramic substrates and create solar-light photocatalytic surfaces. The stability, size distribution and zeta potential of the nanoparticles were assessed by dynamic light scattering. Raman, UV-Vis and XP spectroscopy and electron microscopy reveal that the sol nanoparticles have their outmost layer composed of ferrous and ferric sulphates and those produced in water are made of high-pressure orthorhombic FeS, cubic magnetite Fe₃O₄ and tetragonal maghemite γ-Fe₂O₃, while those formed in ethanol contain hexagonal FeS and cubic magnetite Fe₃O₄. Both colloids absorb solar light and their adsorption to porous ceramic surfaces creates functionalized ceramic surfaces that induce methylene blue degradation by daylight. The laser induced process thus offers an easy and efficient way for the functionalization of porous surfaces by photocatalytic nanoparticles that avoids aggregation in the liquid phase. The formation of an orthorhombic high-pressure FeS phase stable under ambient conditions is the first example of high-pressure structures produced by laser ablation in liquid without the assistance of an electric field.

Simple mixing of ablatively prepared ethanolic TiO- and SiO-derived colloids allows the formation of TiSi₂, which represents the first case of room temperature reactive interaction between two different colloids.