Antibacterial and bioactive properties of stabilized silver on titanium with a nanostructured surface for dental applications

Titanium (Ti) is used in dental applications owing to their excellent mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility. However, postoperative bacterial infection may cause serious complications and remains one of the most difficult challenges hindering the development of long term Ti dental implants. Therefore, the desire for high quality dental care has led to significant interest in designing implant surfaces that offer stable antibacterial activity with excellent cellular response. In this study, we propose a simple and efficient approach for fabricating an antibacterial stabilized Ag nanostructure on a Ti surface, which is based on a two-step process involving target-ion induced plasma sputtering (TIPS) and Ag sputtering. The TIPS process generates a nanostructured Ti surface that provides a nanotemplate on which the Ag nanostructure may be deposited through Ag sputtering. The Ag nanoclusters adhere tightly to the TIPS-treated Ti (TIPS-Ti) nanostructured surface with no noticeable defects, and the amount of stabilized Ag deposited may be controlled by simply adjusting the Ag-sputtering time. The silver ion is released continuously from the Ag-TIPS-Ti surface for 7 d. The Ag nanostructured TIPS-Ti (Ag-TIPS-Ti) surface not only offers outstanding antibacterial activity toward Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus over 12 h of culturing but also exhibits no severe cytotoxicity for fibroblast cells for up to 10 days. In particular, Ag stabilization by 10 s Ag-sputtering on TIPS-Ti provides the best balance between antibacterial activity and cellular performances, and the resulting fibroblast cell-attachment morphology and proliferation level are similar to those for a polished Ti surface. Therefore, the controllable antibacterial activity and fibroblast tissue affinity of the Ag-TIPS-Ti present a promising avenue for producing reliable, long term dental implants. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.