Bioactive glass–ceramic coatings prepared by pulsed laser deposition from RKKP targets (sol–gel vs melt-processing route)

Highlights: ► Bioactive glass–ceramic coatings for bone tissue repair and regeneration. ► Pulsed Lased Deposition allowed congruent transfer of target composition to coating. ► Target was prepared by sol–gel process suitable for compositional tailoring. ► Titanium, widely used for orthopaedics and dental implants, was used as substrate. ► The physico-chemical properties of the prepared coatings are reported. -- Abstract: The deposition of innovative glass–ceramic composition (i.e. RKKP) coatings by Pulsed Lased Deposition (PLD) technique is reported. RKKP was synthesised following two methodologies: melt-processing and sol–gel, the latter being particularly suitable to tailor the compositional range. The PLD advantage with respect to other deposition techniques is the congruent transfer of the target composition to the coating. The physico-chemical properties of films were investigated by Scanning Electron and Atomic Force Microscopies, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Angular and Energy Dispersive X-ray Diffraction, and Vickers microhardness. The deposition performed at 12 J/cm2 and 500 °C allows to prepare crystalline films with the composition that replicates rather well that of the initial targets. The 0.6 μm thin melt-processing RKKP films, possessing the hardness of 25 GPa, and the 4.3 μm thick sol–gel films with the hardness of 17 GPa were obtained.