Surface Modification of Titanium and Titanium Alloys: Technologies, Developments, and Future Interests

TLDR

Titanium alloys are widely used industrially, yet surface degradation limits their performance, and conventional treatments are insufficient, prompting the development of advanced surface‑modification technologies to meet future high‑performance demands. This review aims to synthesize current surface‑modification technologies for Ti alloys, focusing on enhancing mechanical, corrosion, and biological properties and guiding the integration of high‑performance coatings. It covers mechanical, physical, chemical, and biochemical surface‑modification methods, discusses their mechanisms, and highlights how combining their advantages can lead to new high‑performance coatings. Recent surface‑modification methods have improved Ti alloy performance and expanded their applications.

Abstract

Thanks to a considerable number of fascinating properties, titanium (Ti) and Ti alloys play important roles in a variety of industrial sectors. However, Ti and Ti alloys could not satisfy all industrial requirements; the degradation of Ti and Ti alloys always commences on their surfaces in service, which declines the performances of Ti workpieces. Therefore, with aim to further improve their mechanical, corrosion and biological properties, surface modification is often required for Ti and Ti alloys. This article reviews the technologies and recent developments of surface‐modification methods with respect to Ti and Ti alloys, including mechanical, physical, chemical, and biochemical technologies. Conventional methods have limited improvement in the properties and/or restriction on the geometry of workpieces. Therefore, many advanced surface‐modification technologies have emerged in recent decades. New methods make Ti and Ti alloys have better performance and extended applications. With requirement of high surface properties in future. Understanding the mechanism in various surface‐modification methods, combining the advantages of current technologies and developing new coating materials with high performance are required urgently. As such, incorporation of different surface‐modification technologies with high‐performance modified layers may be the mainstream of surface modifications for Ti and Ti alloys.