The adhesion between titanium and dental porcelain is related to the diffusion of oxygen to the reaction layer formed on cast-titanium surfaces during porcelain firing. The diffusion of oxygen could be suppressed by coating the titanium surface with a thin gold layer. This study characterized the effects of gold coating on titanium-ceramic adhesion. ASTM grade II CP titanium was cast into a MgO-based investment (Selevest CB, Selec). The specimen surfaces were air abraded with 110-microm Al(2)O(3) particles. Gold coating was applied on titanium surfaces by three methods: gold-paste (Deck Gold NF, Degussa-Ney) coating and firing at 800 degrees C for three times, single gold-paste coating and firing followed by sputter coating (40 mA, 500 s), and sputter coating (40 mA, 1000 s). Surfaces only air abraded with Al(2)O(3) particles were used as controls. An ultra-low-fusing dental porcelain (Vita Titankeramik, Vident) was fused on titanium surfaces. Specimen surfaces were characterized by SEM/EDS and XRD. The titanium-ceramic adhesion was evaluated by a biaxial flexure test (N = 8), and area fraction of adherent porcelain (AFAP) was determined by EDS. Numerical results were statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA and the Student-Newman-Keuls test at alpha = 0.05. SEM fractography showed a substantial amount of porcelains remaining on the gold-sputter-coated titanium surfaces. A new Au(2)Ti phase was found on gold-coated titanium surface after the firing. Significantly higher (p <.05) AFAP values were determined for the gold-sputter-coated specimens compared to the others. No significant differences were found among the other groups and the control. Results suggested that gold coatings used in this study are not effective barriers to completely protect titanium from oxidation during the porcelain firing, and porcelain adherence to cast titanium can be improved by gold-sputter coating used in the present study.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the biocompatibility of studied binary magnesium-calcium (Mg-Ca) alloys for biodegradable intraosseous implants. Mg is necessary for health and is a non-toxic biodegradable material that decomposes naturally in the body. Nevertheless, Mg has been implicated in problems including diminished physical properties and corrosion resistance when degradation is too rapid prior to bone healing. This study has explored the effect of Ca on the corrosion resistance and biological evaluation after anodizing treatment with different contents of Ca alloy. Binary Mg-0.5Ca, Mg-1Ca and Mg-5Ca alloys were prepared by the casting method under an argon atmosphere and cut into disc-shaped pieces. Pure Mg alloy was used as the control. Anodic oxidation was performed for 15 minutes at a voltage of 120 V using an electrolyte solution containing Ca gluconate, sodium hexametaphosphate, and sodium hydroxide at room temperature. Corrosion resistance was analyzed using a corrosion tester. After a hydrogen evolution test, the surface pattern and phase changes were observed on a scanning electron microscop (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscop (EDS). Microscopic evaluation of the adhesion and cell biological functions of Mg was conducted by observing the response of human fetal osteoblastic 1.19 cells with regard to changes in surface film properties, depending on the amount of Ca. Our results support the view that in Mg-xCa alloys (x = 0.5, 1, 5 wt.%) treated using anodic oxidation, the increasing Ca content controls the rate of decomposition and improves corrosion resistance.

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