Bactericidal abilities and in vitro properties of diamond-like carbon films deposited onto MAO-treated titanium

Abstract

The present work is focused on the antibacterial potentials, tribological properties and corrosion resistances of silver (Ag) or nitrogen (N)-doped diamond-like carbon (DLC) films deposited by a hybrid ion beam deposition system onto titanium substrates that were pretreated by micro arc oxidation (MAO). The results revealed that the DLC and N-DLC films had remarkable sealing effects on the porous MAO-coated substrate. Although the MAO/(Ag:N)-DLC coating still presented porous features, it had the lowest average wear rate of all the samples (4.40 × 10−16 m3/N·m) in an SBF solution and eradicated 100% of the E. coli bacteria. The corrosion current density (1.06 × 10−10 A/cm2) of the MAO/DLC coating was two orders of magnitude greater than that of the other three coatings. It can be speculated that doped DLC films deposited onto MAO-coated substrates could significantly reduce the risk of the titanium implant.