Structure and properties of La 2O 3-TiO 2 nanocomposite films for biomedical applications

Abstract

The hemocompatibility of La 2O 3-doped TiO 2 films with different concentration prepared by radio frequency (RF) sputtering was studied. The microstructures and blood compatibility of TiO 2 films were investigated by scan electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV-visible optical absorption spectroscopy, respectively. With the increasing of the La 2O 3 concentrations, the TiO 2 films become smooth, and the grain size becomes smaller. Meanwhile, the band gap of the samples increases from 2.85 to 3.3eV with increasing of the La 2O 3 content in TiO 2 films from 0 to 3.64%. La 2O 3-doped TiO 2 films exhibit n-type semiconductor properties due to the existence of Ti 2+ and Ti 3+. The mechanism of hemocompatibility of TiO 2 film doped with La 2O 3 was analyzed and discussed. Copyright © 2011 Lin Zhang et al.