Surface treatment of Ti and Ti composites using concentrating solar power and laser

Abstract

Titanium and its composites are widely used in implants of bones and teeth. Besides mechanical properties also surface characteristics are very important in these biomaterials. Very important are properties such as surface topography, roughness, chemistry, and surface energy, wettability, and Ti oxides or Ti nitride layers thickness. The concentrated solar power was used successfully to nitride Ti Grade 2 and powder metallurgical Ti prepared from hydrogenated dehydrogenated Ti powder. The nitriding experiments were performed under nitrogen atmosphere at different temperatures and time in SF40 (40kW horizontal solar furnace) at PSA, Spain. Concentrated solar energy has been shown to be an economical alternative to conventional gas nitriding techniques in electric furnaces, CVD, PVD, plasma nitriding, or laser treatments. It has been observed that the solar process represents a significant reduction of the heating time to several minutes (up to 5 minutes at temperature range 500-1000 °C), a clean and non-polluting high-temperature process. The formation of continuous and homogeneous surface layers of TiN, Ti2N and their mixture according to the nitriding temperature was investigated using X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. Laser surface treatment is of great significance in modifying surface morphology and surface and near-surface region microstructures. Effects of lase treatment parameters on machined surface morphology, surface roughness and chemistry are analyzed in this study and discussed from the point of view of application in dental implantology. The current advances of our research group in application of laser-treated powder metallurgy prepared Ti-based materials are analyzed and discussed.