Improvement in antibacterial properties and cytocompatibility of titanium by fluorine and oxygen dual plasma-based surface modification

Abstract

A versatile strategy to endow biomaterials with antibacterial ability and compromising cytocompatibility is highly desirable to solve serious infection problem of biomaterial implants. In this study, titanium (cp-Ti) was treated by a plasma enhanced fluorine (F) and oxygen (O) mono/dual chemical vapor deposition to obtain nano-functional coatings with improved antibacterial properties and biocompatibility. Using this platform, the antibacterial effect and the osteoblasts behavior were investigated in vitro. Meanwhile, the corrosion resistance of the fluoride coatings was also concerned. The fluorine-deposited samples can effectively kill Staphylococcus aureus and have adequate antibacterial properties. More importantly, the F and O dual-deposited coatings show the better sustaining antibacterial property after immersion in 0.9%NaCl solution up to 7 days than that of F mono-deposited coatings. Besides, the cell compatibility tests indicate that the fluorine-deposited samples have no appreciable influence on the osteoblast viability and proliferation, but promote differentiation compared to the cp-Ti and O-Ti samples. F and O incorporation even shows some favorable effect on promoting cell spreading. Further, the electrochemical results demonstrate the F and O dual-deposited coating exhibiting an improved corrosion resistance due to the formation of titanium-oxygen compounds on surface. The F and O incorporated coating which provides improved antibacterial ability and biocompatibility has attractive applications in orthopedics, dentistry, and other biomedical devices.