Controlling Silver Ion Release from Ag-Based Nanocoatings by Plasma Surface Engineering

Environmental surfaces have been widely recognized as an important source of hospital-associated transmissions. A number of silver-based antibacterial coatings have been reported in the literature. However, the success of any antibacterial strategy depends on the ability to control the kinetics of the silver ions released from the coating. The novel strategy proposed in this work is based on plasma surface engineering for a controlled-release of silver ions. Plasma-based nanocoatings, plasma oxidation processes and surface patterning of silver coatings were designed and optimized. Surface analyses such as XPS and AFM, as well as silver ion release over 168 h, was evaluated by MIP-AES. Results showed that surface plasma engineering successfully allow tuning the silver release and bioactivity in Ag-containing antibacterial coatings.