Dental implants of complex form coated by nanostructered TiO2 thin films via MOCVD

This paper concerns with the study of an innovative process to be employed for the covering of dental implants with the aim to improve their characteristics. Dental implants were covered with TiO2 that permits to increase the biocompatibility and the speed of osteointegration, which is the speed at which the bone begins to re-grow in direct contact with the implant. Good-quality, polycrystalline, extremely uniform TiO2 thin films were deposited on glass and titanium (dental implants) by employing a hot wall LP-MOCVD (low pressure metal-organic chemical vapour deposition) reactor in 350-430 degreesC range and using titaniumtetraisopropoxide Ti(i-OPr)(4) as precursor. The films resulted anatase oriented in (200) direction, nanostructured with uniform crystallite dimension (50-90 nm). The purpose of this paper is either to show the importance of using simultaneously various theoretical and experimental approaches in the investigation of MOCVD processes, and to obtain very uniform thin layers on substrates of complex form. A study of the growth rate was carried out in order to derive the kinetic control regimes and the corresponding kinetic laws. It was therefore possible to find the best conditions for high uniformity in the reactor.