Enhancing the Antibacterial Properties and Biocompatibility of Ti-Cu Alloy by Roughening and Anodic Oxidation

Abstract

Although Ti-Cu alloys have been shown to possess good antibacterial properties, they are still biologically inert. In this study, sandblasting and acid etching combined with anodic oxidation were applied to roughen the surface as well as to form a TiO2/CuO/Cu2O composite film, which would benefit both the antibacterial properties and the biocompatibility. The surface morphology, the phase composition, and the physicochemical properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Electrochemical testing and inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP) were used to determine the corrosion resistance and Cu ion release, the plate counting method was used to evaluate the antibacterial performance, and the CCK-8 method was used to evaluate the cytocompatibility. It was revealed that a rough surface with densely porous double layer composed of TiO2/CuO/Cu2O was produced on Ti-Cu alloy surface after the combined surface modification, which enhanced the corrosion resistance significantly. The plate counting results demonstrated that the modified sample had strong long-term antibacterial performance (antibacterial rate > 99%), which was attributed to the formation of TiO2/CuO/Cu2O composite film. The cell compatibility evaluation results indicated that the surface modification improved the cytocompatibility. It was demonstrated that the combined modification provided very strong antibacterial ability and good cytocompatiblity, potentially making it a good candidate surface modification technique for Ti-Cu alloy for biomedical applications.

Influence of Aluminum and Copper on Mechanical Properties of Biocompatible Ti-Mo Alloys: A Simulation-Based Investigation

“…In Figure 9 b, the presence of Ti-2Cu-9Mo compound was established, which is also a strengthening factor. Previous studies have mentioned the Ti-2Cu-9Mo phase, which can enhance the antibacterial ability of the alloy [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ].…”

Powder Metallurgy Fabrication and Characterization of Ti6Al4V/xCu Alloys for Biomedical Applications

“…Nevertheless, Ti64 alloy shows serious drawbacks such as poor wear resistance and low antibacterial activity, which may result in the early degradation of long-term prostheses [3]. To overcome these drawbacks, the addition of antibacterial metals such as silver and copper has been proposed [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. It has been reported in [13,14] that a high level of antibacterial activity is reached with the addition of less than 5 wt% of Cu or Ag.…”