A comparative study on the effect of collagen and h-BN reinforcement of hydroxyapatite/chitosan biocomposite coatings electrophoretically deposited on Ti-6Al-4V biomedical implants

Solo and combined effect of collagen (COL) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) reinforcement on the corrosion protection, mechanical and tribological properties of electrophoretically deposited hydroxyapatite/chitosan biocomposite coatings are investigated. Crystallographic, surface morphology and topography, spectroscopic, corrosion protection characteristics, thermal behaviour, mechanical and tribological properties of the electrophoretically deposited biocomposite coatings are investigated via XRD, FE-SEM and SPM, FT-IR, Tafel and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), thermogravimetric analysis, nanoindentation and nanoscratch techniques, respectively. Both solo reinforcement of collagen and h-BN exhibits positive effect on the corrosion protection, mechanical and tribological properties of the HA/CTS biocomposite coatings. However the combined use of these two supporting materials has had a much more positive effect on the physical properties of the coating thanks to the synergetic effect. [Display omitted] •HA/CTS/COL/h-BN biocomposite coatings were produced by EPD first time in the literature.•HA/CTS/COL/h-BN coating protected the Ti6Al4V nearly 8 times better than the unreinforced HA/CTS biocomposite coating.•Singly h-BN reinforcement increased the hardness and elastic modulus of the HA/CTS biocomposite coating more than 1.6 times.•Due to its solid lubricating properties h-BN decreased the surface roughness and CoF of the HA/CTS coatings nearly by half.