Antifouling property of micro-arc oxidation coating incorporating Cu₂O nanoparticles on Ti6Al4V

ABSTRACT

To reduce the overgrowth of marine organisms on titanium alloy, this paper presents an antifouling scheme to process ceramic coatings on Ti6Al4V (TC4) using micro-arc oxidation (MAO) combined with nanotechnology. In the study, different concentrations of Cu₂O nanoparticles are added into the electrolytes prepared for MAO process to produce the ceramic coatings. The antifouling performances of the samples are observed by scanning election microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer and X-ray diffraction. The results demonstrate that nanoparticles of Cu₂O are found in the coating films and the antifouling performance of titanium alloy after MAO treatment is obviously enhanced, in which antibacterial rate is up to 95.25%. The Ti-MAO-10.0g/LCu₂O group has the highest antibacterial rate of 99.74%.

KEYWORDS:

• Antifouling
• micro-arc oxidation
• nanoparticles
• Cu₂O

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by projects Study on Intelligent Control and Structure Parameter Optimization of Valve used in Warship (GH2012107) and Optimization of a Kingston Valve (GH2012024).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.