Education
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
Novel dental and bone implant materials have been investigated in order to find one that is both bioactive and biocompatible. Titanium has been used heavily as an implant material due to its high mechanical strength and biocompatibility; however, due to the lack of bone-bonding ability, a surface modification that will increase titanium’s bioactivity is needed. Hydroxyapatite has been found to be a bioactive substance that induces osteoblast nucleation and proliferation, but due to its low mechanical strength it is not used as an implant material. Using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), various ceramic coatings on titanium such as Al2O3Ìýand TiO2Ìýare being experimented to investigate their hydroxyapatite formation ability through a biomimetic process.