Porous structures of TiO2-Na0.8Ti4O8-Na2Ti6O13: Surface properties and cytotoxic evaluation

Abstract

Porous structures TiO2-Na0.8Ti4O8-Na2Ti6O13 were obtained by mixing, compacting and sintering TiO2 with sodium bicarbonate as porogenic agent (15 and 30 wt.% of NaHCO3). The samples were compacted and treated at 1100 °C for 4 h and 8 h. The effects of sintering time and the weight percent of NaHCO3 on surface mechanical properties, porosity and cytotoxicity were analyzed. The X-ray diffraction patterns were refined by the Rietveld method. Microstructures were observed by scanning electron microscopy and the effect of material composition on the cellular response in vitro was evaluated using a LDH-cytotoxicity assay. The porosity varied between 3.2% and 11.9%, the surface microhardness between 251.4 HV0.2 and 851.6 HV0.2. The cytotoxicity results on the CHO cell line (Chinese Hamster ovary) show that the porous structures are not cytotoxic and has potential for orthopedic tissue engineering applications.