Comment to the Paper: Enhancing Surface Free Energy and Hydrophilicity Through Chemical Modification of Microstructured Titanium Implant

摘要

The paper by F. Rupp et al. presents a study on the relationship between surface roughness and microstructuring of titanium surfaces and surface thermodynamics. Drawing from examples found in Nature and widely described in the current literature (roughness-induced hydrophobicity, wellknown from natural plant surfaces and intensively studied toward superhydrophobic surfaces), the authors stress that hydrophobicity found on microstructured titanium surfaces in general, and on the sandblasted large grit acid-etched (SLA) surface in particular, presumably decelerates primary interactions with the aqueous biosystem. To retain wettability without affecting the microstructure, the authors present a novel surface modification, based on conventional SLA process followed by liquid instead of dry storage. Contact angle measurements show that the novel modification shows increased surface free energy (SFE) and increased hydrophilicity, and this hydrophilization is kept even after any drying. Reduced hydrocarbon contaminations were identified to play a possible role in altered surface thermodynamics, and the Authors produce a series of surface free energy values calculated from advancing contact angles and using a number of different theoretical approaches.