The Influence of Surface Wettability and Topography on the Bioactivity of TiO2/Epoxy Coatings on AISI 316L Stainless Steel

Epoxy/TiO 2/epoxy and epoxy/FAS-TiO 2/epoxy coatings were applied to the surface of AISI 316L stainless steel with the aim to improve the biocompatibility and antibacterial properties. Contact-angle measurements were used to evaluate the wetting properties of the epoxy, epoxy/TiO 2/epoxy and epoxy/FAS-TiO 2/epoxy coatings. The epoxy and epoxy/TiO 2/epoxy coatings were hydrophilic compared with the strongly hydrophobic epoxy/FAS-TiO 2/epoxy coating. The average surface roughness ( Sa) of the epoxy/FAS-TiO 2/epoxy coating was higher than that of the epoxy/TiO 2/epoxy coating due to the formation of agglomerates. The biocompatibility evaluation revealed that the cell attachment was significantly higher on the epoxy/FAS-TiO 2/epoxy and epoxy/TiO 2/epoxy coatings compared with the pure epoxy coating. We also observed improved antibacterial properties for the epoxy coatings with the addition of both TiO 2 and FAS-TiO 2 nanoparticles. View Full-Tex