An effective approach to activate 316L stainless steel for biomimetic coating of calcium phosphate: electrochemical pretreatment

In this paper, an electrochemical (EC) method to activate 316L stainless steel (denoted as 316L) surface for biomimetic calcium phosphate (Ca–P) coatings was reported. After EC treatment, a gel-like Ca–P film with a thickness of 150 nm was generated on the stainless steel surface after treatment, which was composed of amorphous phase of calcium phosphate with a large number of crystal nuclei of octacalcium phosphate (OCP) inside. This Ca–P thin film is the main factor that causes Ca–P formation under biomimetic condition. The effectiveness of EC treatment was also compared with alkali heat (AH) pretreatment in producing biomimetic coating on 316L. A uniform Ca–P coating formed on EC treated samples after samples were immersed in saturated calcium solution (SCS) for several hours, while only some island-like deposits were found on the sample surface with AH treatment followed by immersion in SCS for several days. This work has explored a novel and effective pretreatment method to activate 316L implant surface, which can be expected to be applied to activate other metal implants.