Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Research Article

Shelf Life and Chemical Stability of Calcium Phosphate Coatings Applied to Poly Carbonate Urethane Substrates

¹Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials, Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

²MRC Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge, UK

³Ranier Technology Limited, Cambridge, UK

Corresponding Author:

Prof. SM Best
Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials
Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1223334300
Fax: +44 (0)1223334567
E-mail: smb51@cam.ac.uk

Received date: Juner 03, 2011; Accepted date: September 26, 2011; Published date: September 28, 2011

Citation: Barnes DH, Jugdaosingh R, Kiamil S, Best SM (2 011) Shelf Life and Chemical Stability of Calcium Phosphate Coatings Applied to Poly Carbonate Urethane Substrates. J Biotechnol Biomaterial 1:112. doi:10.4172/2155-952X.1000112

Copyright: © 2011 Barnes DH, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Many modern orthopaedic implants are coated with calcium phosphate to improve the host tissue response to the implants. Despite numerous studies on the dissolution properties of calcium phosphate (CaP) coatings, the coating “shelf life” (i.e. the chemical stability of these coatings prior to implantation), has not been investigated adequately, particularly for CaP coatings applied to polymeric substrates. This paper examines the chemical stability of CaP coatings that were applied to a poly carbonate urethane (PCU) substrate by an aqueous, low temperature technique. Applying a CaP coating to the PCU surface is designed to enhance the fixation between the implant and adjacent vertebrae. High temperature coating techniques are unfeasible for polymeric substrates, like PCU, because the high temperature may critically degrade the substrate. The CaP coating shelf life was assessed by using FTIR-ATR and SEM to analyze changes in CaP-coated PCU discs over time. The expected in vivo chemical stability of the CaP coating was measured by immersing CaP-coated PCU discs in cell culture media under physiological conditions. ICP-OES was used to measure the calcium and phosphorus concentrations of the immersion solution.

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