Scratch and wear behaviour of plasma sprayed nano ceramics bilayer Al₂O₃-13 wt%TiO₂/hydroxyapatite coated on medical grade titanium substrates in SBF environment

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Hydroxyapatite was synthesized by sol–gel route. • Bilayer (AT13/HAP) coating improves wear resistance of CP-Ti implant surface. • The microhardness values of bilayer coating surface were increased 4 times compared to uncoated sample surface. - Abstract: Among the various coating techniques, plasma spray coating is an efficient technique to protect the metal surface from the various surface problems like wear and corrosion. The aim of this present work is to design and produce a bilayer coating on the non- toxic commercially pure titanium (denoted as CP-Ti) implant substrate in order to improve the biocompatibility and surface properties. To achieve that, Al₂O₃-13 wt%TiO₂ (AT13) and hydroxyapatite (HAP) were coated on CP-Ti implant substrate using plasma spray coating technique. Further, the coated substrates were subjected to various characterization techniques. The crystallite size of coated HAP and its morphological studies were carried out using X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively. The wear test on the bilayer (AT13/HAP) coated CP-Ti implant surface was conducted using ball-on-disc tester under SBF environment at 37 °C, in order to determine the wear rate and the coefficient of friction. The adhesion strength of the bilayer coated surface was evaluated by micro scratch tester under the ramp load conditions with load range of 14–20 N. The above said studies were repeated on the single layer coated HAP and AT13 implant surfaces. The results reveal that the bilayer (AT13/HAP) coated CP-Ti surface has the improved wear rate, coefficient of friction in compared to single layer coated HAP and AT13 surfaces