Long-term antibacterial effect of nano-skeletoned Cu-TiN films by dual magnetron sputtering

Antibacterial fabrication has increasingly gained more attention. We present the fabrication processes related to nano-layer antibacterial films containing copper in this paper. TiN/Cu-Zn multilayers were deposited on stainless steel by dual magnetron sputtering. The copper content in each layer has to be optimized to form copper clusters. Consequently the TiN may grow on or between the copper clusters and TiN skeleton with copper located inside may be fabricated for long-term antibacterial effect. Influence of modulation period of multilayers on corrosion resistance and antibacterial properties was also investigated. The relationship of corrosion and antibacterial characteristics was also studied. The results show that good corrosion resistance has been achieved in multilayers when Cu-Zn layers are thin and the corrosion resistance increases with increased thickness of TiN layers. However, the corrosion resistance of multilayers decreased dramatically with increasing thickness of Cu-Zn layers. There exists a proper modulation period of nano-multilayer contributing to high antibacterial effect as well as good corrosion resistance.