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Titanium and titanium alloy materials have been widely used as dental and orthopedic implant materials because of their good biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, and mechanical strength1,2,3. However, due to the high elastic modulus of the compact titanium alloy produced by traditional processing methods, these plates are not suitable for bone repair, since close proximity to the bone surface for long periods can result in stress shielding and bone embrittlement4,5 . Therefore, the porous microstructure of simulated bone trabeculae should be used in titanium alloy implants in order to reduce its elastic modulus to the level matching the bone6,7. Many scaffolds have been used in the field of orthopedics to improve cell viability, attachment, proliferation and homing, osteogenic differentiation, angiogenesis, host integration, and weight bearing4,8,9. Traditional fabrication methods of porous metal structures include the structural template method, defect formation method, compression or supercritical carbon dioxide method, electro-deposition technique10,11, etc. Although these production techniques are highly traditional, they occasionally squander raw materials and have substantial preparatory costs when compared to 3D printing12,13. 3D printing is a technology that uses metal or plastic powder and other adhesive materials to build solid 3D objects from computer aided design (CAD) models via the deposition of overlying layers14,15 . 3D printing shows great potential in directly customizing metallic cellular scaffolds for orthopedic implants and opens up new possibilities for manufacturing customizable complex designs with highly interconnected pores. Among them, selective laser melting (SLM) is one of the most representative 3D printing and manufacturing technologies for porous titanium implant structures16 .
The SLM process uses titanium alloy powder as the raw material, essentially powder melting and forming the structure. Therefore, a large number of semi-molten powders and ablative oxide layers often adhere to the surface of titanium alloy implants, which leads to high surface roughness17. Poor surface quality of porous titanium orthopedic implants leads to inflammation, decreased fatigue performance, and even new biological risks18 . Since the internal pores of porous structures cannot be polished by conventional mechanical polishing, an alternative method needs to be found. Plasma polishing is a new green polishing method for metal workpieces that can efficiently polish workpieces with complex shapes without pollution19 . It has great development potential in the field of titanium alloy implant post-processing.
As a kind of surface technology, plasma polishing technology is particularly suitable for metal workpieces with complex shapes that are not easy to be mechanically polished. The overall goal of this polishing option is to obtain a porous titanium alloy surface with low roughness. The technology can effectively remove particles and fine splash residues attached to the surface of porous titanium orthopedic implants fabricated by 3D printing and reduce surface roughness20. The principle of plasma polishing is a composite reaction process based on a combination of current-induced chemical and physical removal21; the entire circuit forms a transient short circuit, forming a vapor plasma-surrounding layer on the workpiece surface20. This process breaks through the gas layer to form a discharge channel, impacting the workpiece surface. The higher current impacts the convex part of the workpiece surface, leading to the faster removal of semi-molten powder and the burnt oxide layer. The concavity and convexity are constantly changing, and the rough surface becomes gradually smoothed, improving the surface roughness of the workpiece to achieve the purpose of polishing.
At the same time, this technology is a green processing technology, causing no pollution to the environment, and has great advantages compared with other polishing methods. Conventional mechanical polishing techniques mainly include mechanical polishing, chemical polishing, and electrochemical polishing22. Mechanical polishing is the most widely used conventional polishing process; it has the disadvantages of low polishing efficiency, higher demand for manual labor, and inability to polish parts with complex geometries. The potential for employee injury and the likelihood of exceeding tolerances due to human factors are frequent drawbacks of mechanical polishing23. In contrast to chemical polishing, which is based on utilizing a chemical solution to remove parts of a workpiece's material, electrochemical polishing utilizes an electric current and chemical solution to obtain the same result. Unfortunately, both these processes produce hazardous gases and liquids as by-products of use, the composition of which being dependent on the strength of the acid or alkaline chemical reagent being used. As a result, not only are the workers present deemed to be at risk due to exposure, but there is also the potential for severe damage to the environment24. Aliakseyeu et al.25 proposed utilizing plasma polishing for polishing titanium alloy workpieces with simple electrolyte composition. They found that, after polishing titanium sample surface scratches are removed and the surface gloss is significantly improved. Smyslova et al.26 deliberated upon the prospects of applying plasma polishing technology to treat the surfaces of medical implants.
Theoretically, plasma polishing technology can be utilized to polish the structure of any metal part. It has been widely applied for coating, in metal finishing industries, and in 3C electronics, among others22,27,28. However, the present study has some limitations. First of all, the manuscript only focuses on the surface quality and surface roughness of 3D printing porous titanium alloy before and after plasma polishing; the remaining changes are not involved. Secondly, we didn't measure and record the results after heat treatment. Jinyoung Kim et al.29 compared titanium surface modification strategies for osseointegration enhancement. Another study shows that the target-ion induced plasma sputtering (TIPS) technique can impart excellent biological functions to the surface of metallic bio-implants30. In order to further investigate the polishing efficacy and safety of porous titanium alloy for 3D printing, the next step will be to further study SLM part's other properties, such as fatigue performance and osteogenic differentiation. These issues need further refinement. This work differs from earlier plasma polishing studies in that it focuses on 3D printing porous titanium alloy rather than compact titanium alloy. As a result, different manufacturing processes should adopt different polishing parameters. The purpose of this manuscript is to introduce the plasma polishing scheme of 3D printing porous titanium alloy in detail, so as to reduce the surface roughness of workpieces.