Cytocompatibility and antibacterial properties of zirconia coatings with different silver contents on titanium

• The annealed ZrO2-Ag coatings showed a tetragonal-and-monoclinic structure.
• Nanoparticles were well distributed in the annealed ZrO2-Ag composite coatings.
• The ZrO2-Ag coated Ti showed hydrophobic feature.
• The ZrO2-Ag showed good antibacterial performance.
• The ZrO2-Ag showed good human gingival fibroblast cell viability.

This study used a twin-gun magnetron sputtering system to deposit ZrO2-silver (Ag) coatings on biograde pure-titanium implant materials, and the Ag content in the deposited coatings was controlled by the magnetron power. The films were then annealed using rapid thermal annealing at 350 °C for 2 min to induce the nucleation and growth of nanoparticles on the film surface. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (A. actinomycetemcomitans) were used for in vitro antibacterial analyses. The cytocompatibility, mRNA expression, and adhesive morphology of human gingival fibroblast (HGF) cells on the coatings were also determined. The obtained results suggest that ZrO2-Ag composite coatings containing less than 10.6 at.% Ag show hydrophobicity, good viability and proliferation of HGF cells, and antibacterial effects on S. aureus and A. actinomycetemcomitans. Moreover, the antibacterial performance of ZrO2-Ag coatings is superior to that pure-titanium whilst maintaining biological compatibility.