Antibacterial ability and biocompatibility of fluorinated titanium by plasma-based surface modification

Biomaterial surfaces with satisfied antibacterial activity and appropriate cytocompatibility are a pressing clinical need for orthopedic and dental implants.Fluorinecontaining biomaterials have been demonstrated to obtain antibacterial activity and osteogenic property,while the effect of fluorine chemical compositions on antibacterial property and cytocompatibility is rarely studied.To this end,the coatings with different fluorine chemical compositions on titanium surface were prepared by plasma treatment to verify the antibacterial ability and cytocompatibility of fluorinated surfaces.Their antibacterial ability was evaluated by using Staphylococcus aureus,and the cell compatibility was investigated with MC3T3-E1 cells in vitro.The results show that both fluorocarbon coating and metal fluorides coating exhibited a hydrophilic and nano-scaled roughness.Rather than the fluorocarbon coating,the coating composed of metal fluorides presented satisfied bactericide effect and excellent cytocompatibility.The antibacterial mechanism is associated with the metal fluorides and released fluoride ion.This work would provide novel sight in optimizing the surface modification method of fluorinated biomaterials for biomedical applications.

Inhomogeneous Deformation of Multilayered Roll-Bonded Brass/Cu Composites

The deformation gradients in multilayered hot roll-bonded composite materials incorporating two dissimilar face-centered cubic metals, i.e., brass and Cu, were investigated by characterizing the deformation microstructure, hardness and texture at different thickness positions of the composites. For the constitutive metals, the center part of each metal sheet forms the substructure containing coarse grains, while the ultrafine grains and significant shear banding form in the outer part. As deformation increases, the cross-interface shear occurs in the Cu sheet of the composites. Then, grain fragmentation, shear banding and dynamic recovery become the main factors that influence hardness of the metal. Moreover, in the co-deformed composites, the interface between brass and Cu plays a role in texture developments of the individual metals.

Neutron Diffraction Study of Low-Cycle Fatigue Behavior in an Austenitic–Ferritic Stainless Steel

By performing in situ neutron diffraction experiments on an austenitic-ferritic stainless steel subjected to lowcycle fatigue loading, the deformation heterogeneity of the material at microscopic level has been revealed. Based on the in situ neutron diffraction data collected from a single specimen together with the mechanical properties learned from the ex situ micro-hardness, a correlation has been found. The performance versus diffraction-profile correlation agrees with the cyclic-deformation-induced dislocation evolution characterized by ex situ TEM observation. Moreover, based on the refined neutron diffraction-profile data, evident strain anisotropy is found in the austenite. The high anisotropy in this phase is induced by the increase in dislocation density and hence contributes to the hardening of the steel at the first 10 cycles.Beyond 10 fatigue cycles, the annihilation and the rearrangement of the dislocations in both austenitic and ferritic phases softens the plastically deformed specimen. The study suggests that the evolution of strain anisotropy among the differently oriented grains and micro-strain induced by lattice distortion in the respective phases mostly affect the cyclic-deformationinduced mechanical behavior of the steel at different stages of fatigue cycles. The stress discrepancy between phases is not the dominant mechanism for the deformation of the steel.