TEOS thin films obtained by plasma polymerization on Ti6Al4V alloys: Influence of the deposition pressure on surface properties and cellular response

Abstract

The modification of surfaces by the application of thin films has been used in the regenerative medicine area to increase the biocompatibility of metal implants. Titanium alloy has been recently used as substrate in polymerization for biomedical application. In this context, silane films were obtained by plasma polymerization in favor of the sol-gel method and the influence of different pressures in obtaining these films by argon plasma polymerization was evaluated from the alkoxysilane precursor tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) on the Ti6Al4V alloy. The morphological characterization of the films was performed by AFM, Profilometry and Spectral Ellipsometry and the chemical composition was analyzed by XPS. The biological behavior was evaluated by analyzing the mitochondrial activity and cellular viability of mesenchymal stem cells. The plasma polymerization process resulted in the deposition of a nanometric Si-based film formed, predominantly, by Si-O and organosilane bonds. The films that were applied on a sanded surface, with lower pressures in the plasma polymerization process, presented a lower layer thickness and wettability than the films obtained on nanotextured surfaces. Considering absorbance values, the Ti6Al4V samples mechanically sanded and deposited by plasma polymerization at 230 µatm presented better cell viability than samples with nanotextured surfaces coated with plasma polymerized film, indicating this material has potential to biomedical application.

Keywords

• Thin films
• TEOS
• Plasma polymerization
• Stem cells