Plasma sprayed rutile titania-nanosilver antibacterial coatings

Abstract Rutile titania (TiO2) coatings have superior mechanical properties and excellent stability that make them preferential candidates for various applications. In order to prevent infection arising from bacteria, significant efforts have been focused on antibacterial TiO2 coatings. In the study, titania-nanosilver (TiO2/Ag) coatings with five different kinds of weight percentages of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were prepared by plasma spray. The feedstock powders, which had a composition of rutile TiO2 powders containing 1–10,000 ppm AgNPs, were double sintered and deposited on stainless steel substrates with optimized spraying parameters. X-Ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were used to analysize the phase composition and surface morphology of TiO2/Ag powders and coatings. Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were employed to examine the antibacterial activity of the as-prepared coatings by bacterial counting method. The results showed that silver existed homogeneously in the TiO2/Ag coatings and no crystalline changed happened in the TiO2 structure. The reduction ratios on the TiO2/Ag coatings with 10 ppm AgNPs were as high as 94.8% and 95.6% for E. coli and S. aureus, respectively, and the TiO2/Ag coatings with 100–1000 ppm AgNPs exhibited 100% bactericidal activity against E. coli and S. aureus, which indicated the TiO2/Ag coatings with more than 10 ppm AgNPs had strong antibacterial activity. Moreover, the main factors influencing the antibacterial properties of TiO2/Ag coatings were discussed with grain size and the content of silver as well as the microstructure of the coatings.