Alkali-heat treatment (AHT) is an effective surface treatment technology for improving the bioactivity of medical metal biomaterials. However, the effects of AHT on the biocompatibility of the original material are not yet fully clear. Accordingly, in the present study, tantalum (Ta) coatings are deposited on Ti6Al4V substrates using a vacuum plasma spraying (VPS) technique and the coatings are then processed using either alkali treatment (AT) or AHT using 0.5 M and 1.0 M NaOH aqueous solution. In vitro bioactivity tests are performed in simulated body fluid for 3~14 days. It is shown that the surface of the AHT sample treated with 0.5 M NaOH (0.5 M AHT) has excellent bioactivity, irrespective of whether or not ultrasonic cleaning (UC) is performed following the heat treatment process. The surface of the AHT sample processed with 1.0 M NaOH (1.0 M AHT) contains a large number of irregular block-shaped compounds, which hinder the bioactivity of the coating. However, following UC treatment, the block-shaped compounds are removed, and the bioactivity of the AHT-UC sample is similar to that of the 0.5 M AHT sample. In in vitro biocompatibility tests for 1–7 days, the Ta coating and 0.5 M AHT-UC coating exhibited significantly better cellular attachment, growth, spreading, and viability of osteoblast-like osteosarcoma MG-63 cells than the 1.0 M AHT-UC coating. It is speculated that this is due to the presence of excess amorphous sodium tantalate on the surface of the 1.0 M AHT-UC coating. Overall, the present results show that AHT treatment performed with an appropriate NaOH concentration yields a significant improvement in both the bioactivity and the biocompatibility of VPS Ta coatings.

碱热处理（AHT）是一种有效的表面处理技术，可提高医用金属生物材料的生物活性。但是，AHT对原始材料生物相容性的影响尚不完全清楚。因此，在本研究中，使用真空等离子体喷涂（VPS）技术将钽（Ta）涂层沉积在Ti6Al4V基板上，然后使用碱处理（AT）或AHT使用0.5 M和1.0 M NaOH水溶液对涂层进行处理。在模拟体液中进行体外生物活性测试3〜14天。结果表明，不管在热处理过程之后是否进行超声波清洗（UC），用0.5 M NaOH（0.5 M AHT）处理过的AHT样品的表面均具有出色的生物活性。用1.0 M NaOH处理的AHT样品表面（1。0 M AHT）包含大量不规则的块状化合物，这会阻碍涂层的生物活性。但是，在进行UC处理后，去除了块状化合物，并且AHT-UC样品的生物活性类似于0.5 M AHT样品的生物活性。在1到7天的体外生物相容性测试中，与1.0 M AHT-UC涂层相比，Ta涂层和0.5 M AHT-UC涂层表现出明显更好的成骨样骨肉瘤MG-63细胞的细胞附着，生长，扩散和生存能力。据推测这是由于在1.0M AHT-UC涂层的表面上存在过量的非晶态钽酸钠。总体而言，本结果表明，用适当的NaOH浓度进行的AHT处理在VPS Ta涂层的生物活性和生物相容性上均产生了显着改善。