Electropolymerization of pyrrole on titanium substrates for the future development of new biocompatible surfaces

Titanium and its alloys are widely used in load-bearing implants as a resul t of their excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. In ord er to improve their performances with respect to osseointegration, the use of bioactive coatings has been suggested. Polypyrrole (PPy) has been chosen as coating polymer because of its ability to be electrochemically grown di rectly onto metallic substrates, of any shape and dimension, leading to rem arkably adherent overlayers. This polymer, in addition to protecting the me tal implant against corrosion, could be surface modified with biologically active molecules able to stimulate positive interactions with bone tissue. In this work, PPy electrosynthesis on both titanium and Ti-Al-V substrates has been investigated. The chemical composition and the morphology of the p olymeric films, deposited under different conditions, were evaluated by X-r ay photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.