Bactericidal and corrosive properties of silver implanted TiN thin films coated on AISI317 stainless steel

The bactericidal and corrosive property of Ag+-implanted AISI317 stainless steel and TiN thin films coated on AISI317 substrate were investigated using Gram positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and electrochemical measurements. The silver ion implantation was performed with the dose ranging from 5 × 1016 to 5 × 1018 ions/cm2 at an energy of 70 keV. The samples were characterized by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). sults indicate that the high dose Ag+-implanted samples show the antibacterial activity obviously but high dose implantation reduced the corrosion resistance correspondingly. There is an optimum ion dose of 1 × 1018 ions/cm2 at which both bactericidal and anticorrosion properties are kept complement. Based on some results on surface characterization, the mechanism of the antibacterial properties and corrosion resistance are discussed.