Development and characterisation of novel anti-bacterial S-phase based coatings

It is well-known that biologically active Ag/Cu ions are strong bactericides and silver or copper nanoparticles have been used in polymer-based antibacterial coatings. However, their poor durability has limited their use in tribological applications. This problem has been largely addressed recently...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Thin solid films 2017-12, Vol.644, p.71-81
Main Authors: Formosa, Dennis, Li, Xiaoying, Sammons, Rachel, Dong, Hanshan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anti-bacterial
Magnetron sputtering
Monolayer and multilayer coatings
S-phase coatings
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:It is well-known that biologically active Ag/Cu ions are strong bactericides and silver or copper nanoparticles have been used in polymer-based antibacterial coatings. However, their poor durability has limited their use in tribological applications. This problem has been largely addressed recently by developing novel plasma co-alloying of austenitic stainless steel surfaces with both nitrogen and Ag/Cu to form wear resistant antibacterial S-phase. However, this technology is only applicable to austenitic stainless steel as the S-phase cannot be formed to other materials. In this study, S-phase based anti-bacterial coatings have been, for the first time, developed using magnetron sputtering through co-deposition of austenitic stainless steel with Ag/Cu to form hard S-phase doped with Ag, Cu or both in monolayer and multilayer structures. These coatings were fully characterised using multiple techniques such as SEM, TEM, XRD, GDOES and anti-bacterial tests. It has been found that it is possible to produce dense Ag and Cu doped S-phase layer with significant anti-bacterial efficacy. This was achieved while preserving the advantageous properties of the S-phase microstructure. As opposed to the popular diffusion based S-phase production such as plasma nitriding, this technology can also be applied on all kinds of surfaces, including low-cost steel surfaces, polymers and ceramics. •S-phase co-deposited with Ag/Cu by magnetron sputtering in mono- and multilayer.•The layer architecture and doping concentration of Ag and Cu were tunable.•Long-lasting antibacterial efficacy was achieved by SCu10 and SCu35 coatings.
ISSN:0040-6090
1879-2731
DOI:10.1016/j.tsf.2017.10.054