Improvement of Titanium Corrosion Resistance by Coating with Poly-Caprolactone and Poly-Caprolactone/Titanium Dioxide: Potential Application in Heart Valves

Heart diseases affect part of world population and generally involves the functioning of valves. Valves replacement is the most common treatment and the choice between synthetic or natural/biological implants depends on several factors. Synthetic implants have greater durability, whereas biological ones are more biocompatible. This work proposes the use of polymeric coating on titanium metal surface to increase implant biocompatibility. Poly-caprolactone (PCL) has demonstrated greater efficacy for biomedical applications due to its biocompatibility. It can easily form films and coat surfaces. Titanium discs were submitted to alkaline and thermal treatments and coated with 1%PCL and 1%PCL+TiO2. For both conditions, PCL crystals were found in titanium coated surface (SEM and EDX) and X-ray diffractogram confirmed PCL coating. Infrared Spectroscopy spectra showed both PCL and TiO2 characteristic peaks. Moreover, corrosion resistance of coated disc has considerably increased, proving the effectiveness of PCL as coating material and its potential application in cardiac valves.

心血管疾病影响全球部分人群，且通常会累及心脏瓣膜的功能。瓣膜置换术是最常见的治疗手段，人工合成与天然/生物植入物的选择需综合多种因素。人工合成植入物耐久性更强，而生物植入物则具备更优异的生物相容性。本研究提出在钛金属表面制备聚合物涂层，以提升植入物的生物相容性。聚己内酯（Poly-caprolactone, PCL）因具备良好的生物相容性，在生物医学领域已展现出优异的应用效果，其易于成膜并实现表面涂层改性。本研究将钛圆盘先后进行碱处理与热处理，随后分别采用1%PCL以及1%PCL+TiO₂两种体系进行涂层改性。两种涂层体系的钛基表面均检测到PCL晶体（通过扫描电子显微镜（Scanning Electron Microscope, SEM）与能量色散X射线能谱（Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy, EDX）验证），X射线衍射图谱也证实了PCL涂层的存在。红外光谱（Infrared Spectroscopy）图谱显示出PCL与TiO₂的特征吸收峰。此外，经涂层改性的钛圆盘耐腐蚀性能显著提升，证实了PCL作为涂层材料的有效性及其在心脏瓣膜领域的应用潜力。