PRODUCTION OF CALCIUM-PHOSPHATE COATINGS BY LASER-ABLATION FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Apatitic calcium phosphates are used as coatings to improve the fixati on of orthopaedic and dental implants. The commercial technique to pro duce these coatings (plasm-spray) shows some problems of adherence and control of their physicochemical properties. In this communication la ser ablation is presented as a solution to overcome these problems. Th e ablation system consists in a vacuum chamber filled with water vapou r up to the desired pressure. The laser beam of an ArF excimer laser i s focused on a hydroxyapatite target, and the coating is deposited on a substrate parallel to the target maintained at certain temperature. The physicochemical properties of the material were analysed by Fourie r transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) X ray diffraction (XRD), s canning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X ray spectro scopy (EDX). Taking into account these results, two types of coatings were choosen to asses their biocompatibility in vitro.