Effect of Low-Temperature Oxygen Plasma Treatment of Titanium Alloy Surface on Tannic Acid Coating Deposition

• Published in: Materials Vol. 17; no. 5; p. 1065
• Main Authors: Winiecki, Mariusz, Stepczyńska, Magdalena, Moraczewski, Krzysztof, Skowronski, Lukasz, Trzcinski, Marek, Rerek, Tomasz, Malinowski, Rafał
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 26.02.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Acids; Atomic force microscopy; Biocompatibility; Biomedical materials; Coatings; Contact angle; Cracks; Deposition; Electrons; Energy; Low temperature; Oxygen plasma; Photoelectrons; Plasma etching; Plasma physics; Scanning electron microscopy; Software; Specialty metals industry; Spectroellipsometry; Substrates; Surface properties; Tannic acid; Titanium; Titanium alloys; Titanium base alloys; Titanium dioxide; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy; X-ray spectroscopy; Poland; United States > US; Germany; titanium alloy; tannic acid; coating; low-temperature plasma; surface modification
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma17051065

In this study, the effect of low-temperature oxygen plasma treatment with various powers of a titanium alloy surface on the structural and morphological properties of a substrate and the deposition of a tannic acid coating was investigated. The surface characteristics of the titanium alloy were evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and contact angle measurements. Following this, the tannic acid coatings were deposited on the titanium alloy substrates and the structural and morphological properties of the tannic acid coatings deposited were subject to characterization by XPS, SEM, and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) measurements. The results show that the low-temperature oxygen plasma treatment of titanium alloys leads to the formation of titanium dioxides that contain –OH groups on the surface being accompanied by a reduction in carbon, which imparts hydrophilicity to the titanium substrate, and the effect increases with the applied plasma power. The performed titanium alloy substrate modification translates into the quality of the deposited tannic acid coating standing out by higher uniformity of the coating, lower number of defects indicating delamination or incomplete bonding of the coating with the substrate, lower number of cracks, thinner cracks, and higher thickness of the tannic acid coatings compared to the non-treated titanium alloy substrate. A similar effect is observed as the applied plasma power increases.