Browsing by Author "Mudenda, Steven"

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    Development and characterization of bioceramic coatings for medicall and dental applications
    (University of the Western Cape, 2007) Mudenda, Steven; Adams, Daniel; Mayer, James W.; Dept. of Physics; Faculty of Science
    Hydroxyapatite (HA), which is a natural component of bone tissue, is already being marketed as a coating for the metal shafts of hip implants as well as dental screws and other endoprostheses with the expectation of improved bonding to bone through osseointegration. Coatings prepared by the more widely used and commercial method, plasma spraying technique suffer from poor adhesion or delamination from the substrate. The high temperatures also results in a number of unstable decomposition phases compared to the more crystalline phase. The main purpose of the present research was to prepare and characterize HA coatings using low temperature sol-gel method with the specific aims of improving adhesion on both the HA/metal and HA/bone interface which have been reported failure modes of implants.