Plasma surface modification of titanium for hard tissue replacements

Titanium and its alloys are preferred materials for hard tissue replacements because of their excellent mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. In order to improve the properties of titanium and expand its clinical application, many methods have been applied to modify the surface of titanium. In this paper, we describe the application of plasma surface modification technologies, including plasma spraying and plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) and deposition, to improve the bioactivity of titanium and discuss our recent research work pertaining to the surface modification and bioactivity enhancement of titanium using plasma-based ion implantation and plasma spraying in the City University of Hong Kong and Shanghai Institute of Ceramics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS). © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.