Electron beam evaporated vs. magnetron sputtered nanocolumnar porous stainless steel: Corrosion resistance, wetting behavior and anti-bacterial activity

Stainless steel (SS), widely used because of its outstanding corrosion protection properties, does not possess any particular anti-stain or anti-bacterial activity as required for household and sanitary applications. This work reports the fabrication of SS thin films that, keeping a similar corrosion resistance than the bulk material, presents hydrophobicity and anti-bacterial activity. These thin films are prepared at ambient temperature by physical vapor deposition (PVD), either electron beam evaporation (EBE) or magnetron sputtering (MS), at oblique angles (OAD). According to their scanning electron microcopy and atomic force microscopy analysis, the microstructure of the OAD-SS thin films consisted of tilted and separated nanocolumns defining a surface topology that, characterized by a high percentage of void space, varied with the deposition conditions and procedure, either EBE or MS. It has been shown that particularly the nanocolumnar MS-OAD thin films preserved and even improved the high corrosion resistance of compact SS, as determined by electrochemical analysis. Besides, all OAD-SS thin films depict hydrophobicity and a high antibacterial activity. These features, particularly remarkable for the MS-OAD thin films, have been related with their tip-like termination at the surface and the existence of large void spaces separating the nanocolumns. This topology appears to affect negatively the bacteria’s deployment onto the surface and therefore the survival rate. Differences in the corrosion and antibacterial performance between EBE and MS-OAD thin films have been related with the specificities of these two PVD methods of thin film preparation. A relatively high abrasion resistance, as determined by abrasion tests, supports the use of MS-OAD thin films for the protection of commodity materials.