Silicon nitride – from inert to bioactive by surface modification
DE LA TORRE OLVERA G. 1, LABUDOVÁ M. 2, HICÁK M. 1, HNATKO M. 1, ŠAJGALÍK P. 1, TATARKOVÁ M. 1
1 Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 36 , Bratislava, Slovakia; 2 Biomedical Research Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 05 , Bratislava, Slovakia
The work presents the way how the bioinert sufrace of silicon nitride can be transformed to bioactive. In the first step, the samples of silicon nitride were sintered using different sintering additives (containing Ca, Ce, Y or Mg) using electric field assisted technology. The silicon nitride samples with bioactive phases at the grain boundaries were tested to determine room temperature mechanical properties, such as Young’s modulus, hardness, indentation fracture toughness and 4-point bending strength. The surfae of the samples was modified using oxyacetylene flame or plasma etching in order to increase the amount of the bioactive phases in the surface layer and to change the topology of the surface. The cell viability and the growth of the cells on the surface was analysed and quantified. In addition, the level of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine production was analysed to select a most suitable Si3N4 material for bone implants.
This work was supported by VEGA Project No. 2/0161/22, JRP SAV TUBITAK project No. 546676 and the Slovak Grant Agency APVV-18-0542