The electrophoretic deposition of Bioglass® particles on stainless steel and Nitinol substrates

45S5 Bioglass (R) coatings have been produced on stainless steel (type 304) plates by electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Aqueous suspensions of Bioglass (R) powder (mean particle size < 3 mu m) were used. In addition, shape memory nickel-titanium wires were also coated with Bioglass (R) using an optimised EPD procedure. EPD led to the fort-nation of thick (up to 30 mu m) and uniform coatings covering tile substrates very homogeneously No microcracks were formed during tile drying stage. For all substrates, best results were achieved with suspensions of distilled water containing 20 wt.% Bioglass (R), an applied voltage of 5 V and a deposition time of 5 min. For the stainless steel plates, sintering at 950 degrees C led to a complete covering of the plates with a continuous Bioglass (R) layer, assisted by viscous flow of the glass. Sintering of the Bioglass (R)-coated wires at temperatures > 800 degrees C led to a diffusion of nickel and titanium into the Bioglass (R) coating which was confirmed by EDX analysis. The results demonstrate that the EPD technique is a very useful method to produce uniform and reproducible Bioglass (R) coatings on metallic planar substrates and wires for biomedical applications. The technique presented here should be considered as a convenient alternative for bioactive coatings in comparison to other methods such as sol-gel coating and plasma-based deposition techniques. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.