Antibacterial and Tribological Properties of TiSiN/Ag Nano-Multilayer Coating

To study the antibacterial and tribological properties of TiSiN/Ag nano-multilayer coating, TiSiN/Ag nano-multilayer coating and TiSiN coating were deposited on Ti-6Al-4V alloy in a closed field multi-arc ion plating system. A variety of technologies have been employed to characterize the coatings, including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microcopies, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope, nanoindentation. The tribological tests of TiSiN/Ag nano-multilayer coating were undertaken in artificial seawater on a ball-on-disc Rtec instrument and the antibacterial efficiency was characterized through measuring the growth status of microbial cells of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. The results show that the fiction coefficient of the TiSiN/Ag nano-multilayer coating in seawater was lower than TiSiN coating. The wear rate of TiSiN/Ag multilayer coating and TiSiN coating were much less than Ti-6Al-4V substrate, what's more, TiSiN/Ag nano-multilayer coating was found to have excellent wear resistance. The results of antibacterial efficiency of TiSiN/Ag nano-multilayer coating revealed that the mortality of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis after 24 h were 99.89% and 100%.