Surface treatment and modification of metals to add biofunction.

To add biocompatibility or biofunction to metal surface, an intelligent interface between metals and tissues must be acquired. Tremendous surface modification techniques are currently studied to create the intelligent interface. In particular, bone formation or bone bonding is major purpose of the surface modifications. Time transient of surface modification techniques are summarized and the importance of roughened or porous surface to combine materials with bone tissue is demonstrated. As an example of surface modification, electrodeposition of poly(ethylene glycol) to inhibit biofilm formation is introduced. A dual-functional surface is formed on titanium by micro arc oxidation. In addition, the effect of topography on the elongation and differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells was confirmed on the hybrid micrometer-level and nanometer-level grooves of titanium surface. Metal surface is possibly biofunctionalized by various surface modification techniques.