An Investigation of Corrosion Resistance and Antibacterial Sensitivity Properties of Nano-Ag-Doped TiO 2 Coating and TiO 2 Coating Grown on NiTi Alloy with the Micro-Arc Oxidation Process

In this study, TiO 2 coatings were grown with nano-Ag doped and micro-arc oxidation technique on NiTi shape memory alloy. The antibacterial sensitivity and corrosion resistance characteristics of both coatings were investigated. The microstructure and composition analyses of the coatings were performed with scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, and X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD results showed that there were only TiO 2 crystal phases (anatase and rutile) on the coating. The results showed that a clean and dense oxide layer was grown on the surface successfully. The surface of nano-Ag-doped TiO 2-coated samples appear to be smoother than the surface of the coatings without Ag. The corrosion tests of the coated and uncoated samples were carried out in three different environments (simulated body fluid, synthetic saliva, and cola) at 37 ∘ which is human body temperature. The corrosion tests showed that the corrosion resistance of TiO 2-coated and nano-Ag-doped TiO 2-coated samples was much higher than the corrosion resistance of the NiTi substrate. Seven different bacteria including (S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, Bacillus subtilis, Salmonella enteritidis, Yersinia enterocolitica, and E. coli, P.aeruginosa) which have the human pathogen feature were used in the antibacterial susceptibility tests. The process was conducted based on the disk diffusion method to test the susceptibility of bacterial strains on the selected coated and uncoated samples, and antimicrobial activity was evaluated in the nano-Ag-doped TiO 2-coated material; P.aeruginosa, Y. enterocolitica, and E. coli (zone diameter of 8–14 mm) were found to be moderately susceptible; S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, B. subtilis, and S. enteritidis (zone diameters of 8–14 mm) were found to be resistant. The antimicrobial activity of the coating material NiTi was found to be sensitive for all antibacterial tests. According to the TiO 2-coated material results, S. aureus, P.aeruginosa, L. monocytogenes, E. coli were found to be moderately sensitive and Y. enterocolitica, S. enteritidis, and B. subtilis were found to be resistant.