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The aim of this work is to further analyze the nature of the TiO2 passivation layer regarding structure, hydrophilicity and adsorption behavior, starting with the question how far metal and oxide properties are affected by the contact, regarding structural relaxation, atomic charges and work function. This determines how far the influence of metal has to be considered in simulations of TiO2 passivation layers. Mimicking the initial phases of implant contact with the biological environment, the adsorption of the inorganic ions on titanium oxides is to be investigated next, especially the influence of Ca2+ and HnPO4n-3 on the surface properties. Finally, biomolecule adsorption on TiO2 surfaces is investigated for understanding and improving their bioactivity.
Titanium and Titanium Dioxide
The properties of sharp interfaces formed between metallic titanium and a titanium dioxide layer with rutile or anatase structure and four different surface terminations were investigated. In all cases the work of separation is higher than the sum of surface energies, indicating the formation of an energetically very favorable interface region that glues the two phases together. The interface energy is negative, which means that for Ti and TiO2 bulk phases, mixing is energetically favorable.
The influence of the metal on the atomic and electronic structure of the oxide is limited to a few atomic layers. Depending on its modification, a passivation layer may give rise to up- (rutile) or downshift (anatase) of the work function of the underlying titanium metal.
Calcium and Phosphate
First principles molecular dynamics simulations in vacuum revealed stable bonds between Ca2+ and HnPO4n-3 ions and the investigated TiO2 surfaces. Ca2+ ions bind to 2–4 surface oxygen atoms, preferring peripheral positions as found on both rutile surfaces where adsorption energies reach 9 eV per ion. In solution the hydration energy drastically reduces these values.
Phosphate adsorbs to the TiO2 surface, but the adsorption energy is much lower than that of Ca2+ ions. The approach of phosphate is highly orientation dependent and hampered by the terminal oxygen atoms.
Both ab initio and force field simulations indicate enrichment of Ca2+ ions close to the surface, most of them directly bound to it, which results in a net positive charge. As the adsorption of phosphate takes longer and is strongly reinforced by adsorbed Ca2+ ions, it has become obvious that Ca2+ ions initiate the adsorption of calcium phosphate clusters to titania surfaces. However, the TiO2 surface does not necessarily act as a nucleation site for calcium phosphate crystallization, as adsorbed Ca2+ ions show reduced affinity towards phosphate compared to free ions in solution.
Collagen and Mechanical Stress
Coinciding force distance relations have been obtained for a variety of restraint force constants, expansion rates and environments. The resulting Young’s moduli are in the range of experimental values both at low and high strain ranges. For low strains the calculated Young’s modulus of about 2 GPa is comparable to experimental values between 3 and 5 GPa. For high strains it reaches 10 GPa. The Young’s moduli can be assigned to three different mechanisms of stretching, affecting the macroscopic linearity, the torsional angles and the bond lengths.
Chondroitin Sulfate (CS) and Hyaluronic Acid (HA)
A force field model for CS and HA could be established that reproduced experimental torsion angles and showed the same free energy surface (FES) as an ab initio model. Hydration affects the overall FES, but does not alter the position of the energetic minima. Stabilization of the conformation via bridging water molecules as suggested by other works is not necessary.
Both glycosaminoglycans adsorb to a hydroxylated rutile (100) surfaces despite the negative net charge both on surface and adsorbate. The presence of Na + ions is enough to compensate for the negative surface charge and to allow for adsorption. Ca2+ ions form additional bridges between negative groups on the surface and in the adsorbate.
Simulations of Short Model Peptides and Practically Relevant Modeled Titanium Implant Surfaces
(2014)
One of the aims of this work was to generate a non restrained force field model including carbon contamination to make the adsorption simulations more realistic and comparable with experimental data. Another purpose was to find out how the special recognition of small linker proteins on titanium dioxide is working. During this work a fixed and a non restrained rutile (100) model was used and critical properties were observed which are not only related to the surface. The rigid water layers on top of the oxide are very important for the protein and peptide adsorption. Therefore the first discussing object were the properties of the water layers and how they can be influenced. The charge distribution on the surface was found to have a big effect on them. Depending on the charges of the surface atoms or the functional groups, resulting out of the hydroxylation equilibrium, precisely the first water layer gets more rigid or smother. This has a big effect on biomolecule adsorption. The peptides need to penetrate these water layers to generate direct interaction points. The correct description of the surface in molecular dynamic simulations therefore has a high influence on the results. The better the model is the better the findings are comparable with experimental ones. Additionally carbon contamination was mimicked by using a monolayer of pentanol molecules. This fits very good with experimental data (e.g. contact angle) and make the oxide model more hydrophobic. Interaction of proteins and peptides in experiments or in medical use are often observed under normal air conditions, which means that the scaffold is i) hydroxylated by water and ii) carbon contaminated in a short period of time. Therefore investigations were done to find out how the contamination influences the adsorption of a formally know good or bad binding peptide (TiOBP1; TiOBP2). It was found that the TiOBP1 is able to bind the different surface modifications very well which coincides with observations made in experiments. The way of adsorption (direct or indirect) depends on the water layers properties. The first layer on high charged surface models is that rigid, that the peptide is not able to adsorb in a direct way. On the carbon contaminated oxide model the adsorption is possible by reducing the flexibility of the secondary structure motive. In the case of TiOBP2 adsorption on the clean surface model results in only weak binding or even in no interaction. Whereas on the carbon contaminated dioxide the once know bad binder is able to interact with the Pentanol monolayer. No direct adsorption is observed but the hydrophobic side chains have the possibility to orient themselves according to the hydrophobic layer without changing significantly in the secondary structure motive. An additional test peptide (minTBP) adsorbs without being affected by the contamination. This raises the question if the distribution of hydrophobic to hydrophilic amino acids has influence on the adsorption ability according to clean and contaminated surface. For experimental application it could be of interest to generated peptides (GEPI´s) which bind both surface types without changing the secondary structure motives then as we know functionality is based on these structures. In the case of the PHMB polymer adsorption was observed depending on the hydroxylation ratio and therefore on the charge density of the rutile (100) surface. After analysis of the simulations takeaways from experiments could be substantiated. The PHMB interacts with the negative charged surface via the first water layer as a film. So the new force field model describing the rutile (100) titanium dioxide surface with additional carbon contamination model of one monolayer pentanol fits the experimental data very well. The adsorption studied on this surfaces indicates that the contamination as expected makes the surface more hydrophobic and influences the adsorption behavior of the tested peptides especially the secondary structure of TiOBP1. This indeed enhances experimental investigations. Peptides which e.g. link organic and inorganic parts should be good adsorbing on clean and contaminated surfaces by keeping their functionality. Furthermore experimental data can be substantiated by using atomistic simulations like in the case of PHMB adsorption.