Developments in Metallic Biomaterials and Surface Coatings for Various Biomedical Applications

摘要

The use of metallic biomaterials in medical treatments can be dated back to about early twentieth century. Metallic biomaterials are used as implant devices and attribute for 70-80% of all the implants used in human body. Applications of metallic biomaterials include repair of bones, repair of hard tissues, repair of fractures, etc.. Metallic biomaterials are preferred choice to be used in implants because they exhibit mechanical properties such as durability, corrosion resistance, high strength and toughness, and thus are used for replacing and restructuring various structural parts of human body. Because of ever-increasing world population and increase in number of traumas, there is an extensive demand of metallic biomaterials to be used as knee joint prosthesis, shoulder prosthesis, dental implants and bone fixations, with desirable mechanical properties so as they match the requirement of the human body. The metallic biomaterials can be mainly subdivided into these broad categories: stainless steel (316L), titanium-based alloys and cobalt-based alloys. For being used as implants, the metallic alloys have to own similar characteristics as that of human bones. Table 1 summarises the clinical application of broad categories of biomaterials.