Investigation of Copper/Sodium Alendronate Drug Doped TiO2 Nanoparticle Array on Ti as a Hybrid Material for Implant Application

Abstract

Titanium is the optimal biomaterial for orthopedic and dental applications. Due to its biocompatibility and superior mechanical properties, it is more suitable for implant applications than other metals. However, due to its bio-inertness, the surface of titanium must be modified for human bone tissue. Various techniques can be used to construct titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (TNPs), but anodizing is the most often used because of its portability and low cost. Due to the high similarity of hydroxyapatite to the mineral components of bone and dentin, metal implants are coated with bone-conducting biomaterials such as hydroxyapatite (HA) to enable better bone bonding. In this study, copper and chitosan were used because of their excellent antimicrobial properties. Electrochemical impedance tests show that an HA/Cu/Drug/chitosan (Chit) coating has a polarization resistance of 300,000 Ω because the copper coating on the titanium dioxide nanoparticle (TNP) increases corrosion resistance. A potentiodynamic polarization test shows that the current of corrosion of the HA/Cu/Drug/chitosan sample is 2.1719 × 10−6 A. The antibacterial activity of the HA/Drug, HA/Drug/Chit, and HA/Cu/Drug/Chit coatings was evaluated in vitro against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29737, and it is found that the HA/Cu/Drug/Chit coating presents high antibacterial activity due to the presence of copper and chitosan. Its optical density is 0.78, which is lower than that of all the other samples. Cell viability is highest for the TNP samples containing chitosan. Regarding the TNP sample containing HA/Drug (99.4%), it is observed that the percentage of cell viability is higher than that of the TNP sample containing HA/Cu/Drug (97.54%) due to the toxicity of copper. This study shows that the modification of the titanium implants can be used to control drug release and enhance corrosion resistance, antibacterial properties, and cell viability.