A Titanium-Based Superhydrophobic Coating with Enhanced Antibacterial, Anticoagulant, and Anticorrosive Properties for Dental Applications

Titanium and its alloys have been widely employed as dental implant materials. However, polymicrobial infection is still one of the most common reasons for implant failure, which has already become a worldwide problem and poses a threat to human health. In this study, a titanium-based (Ti-based) superhydrophobic coating was effectively created by anodization followed by hydrophobic modification of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (FAS), which shows a high water contact angle (WCA) of 159.9 ± 5.8° and a low water sliding angle (WSA) of 2.7 ± 2.2°. The thickness of the anodized samples is from 500 nm to 4 µm as the anodizing voltage increases. The Ti-based superhydrophobic coating demonstrated the existence of Ti, O, C, F, and Si elements, and the corresponding phase compositions are Ti and anatase. The results showed that the Ti-based superhydrophobic coating has good biocompatibility to co-culture with L929 cells for 1, 3, and 5 days. It was also proven that the as-prepared Ti-based superhydrophobic coating has enhanced antibacterial abilities against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis, P.g) after 4, 12, and 24 h. Moreover, the Ti-based superhydrophobic coating can significantly reduce platelet adhesion and activation. In addition, the Ti-based superhydrophobic coating also exhibits a considerable positive shift in the corrosion potential (Ecorr) and a decline of one order of magnitude in the corrosion current density (Jcorr), showing good anticorrosive properties. It was also found that the capsule around the Ti-based superhydrophobic coating was thinner than that of bare Ti after implantation for 7, 15, and 28 days, indicating its good biosafety. Therefore, the as-prepared Ti-based superhydrophobic coating can be a suitable candidate for Ti-based implants in dental applications.