Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
The coverage of an oxidized Ti-surface by amphoteric OH groups seems to be the driving mechanism for the attachement of bone material to Ti-implants. To contribute to the quantitative and fundamental understanding of this phenomenon, an ab-inito surface method was applied to calculate the electronic structure and energetics of the clean and hydroxylated (110) TiO2 rutile surface. Some of the most important relaxation and reconstruction effects of surface geometries were derived from total energy minimization.