Monitoring of Carbonated Hydroxyapatite Growth on Modified Polycrystalline CVD-Diamond Coatings on Titanium Substrates

Production of diamond coatings on titanium substrates has demonstrated as a promising strategy for applications ranging from biosensing to hard tissue engineering. The present study focuses on monitoring the nucleation and growth of bone-like carbonated-hydroxyapatite (C-HA) on polycrystalline diamond (PCD) synthetized on titanium substrate by means of a hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HF-CVD) method. The surface terminations of diamond coatings were selectively modified by oxidative treatments. The process of the C-HA deposition, accomplished by precipitation from simulated body fluid (SBF), was monitored from 3 to 20 days by Raman spectroscopy analysis. The coupling of morphological and structural investigations suggests that the modulation of the PCD surface chemistry enhances the bioactivity of the produced materials, allowing for the formation of continuous C-HA coatings with needle-like texture and chemical composition typical of those of the bone mineral. Specifically, after 20 days of immersion in SBF the calculated carbonate weight percent and the Ca/P ratio are 5.5% and 2.1, respectively. Based on these results, this study brings a novelty in tailoring the CVD-diamond properties for advanced biomedical and technological applications.