Crystallographic properties and mechanical behaviour of titanium hydride layers grown on titanium implants

Commercially pure titanium for bone-anchored dental implants, subjected to a sand-blasting and acid-etching surface treatment, has been mechanically tested and analysed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy observations. A fcc titanium hydride layer grows on the polycrystalline titanium substrate with various epitaxial relationships, whose grains also show epitaxial relationships with each other. Indentations, flexion tests and dislocation analyses indicate that this hydride layer can be plastically deformed.