Antibacterial and corrosive properties of copper implanted austenitic stainless steel

Copper ions were implanted into austenitic stainless steel (SS) by metal vapor vacuum arc with a energy of 100 keV and an ions dose range of (0.5-8.0) × 10¹⁷ cm⁻². The Cu-implanted SS was annealed in an Ar atmosphere furnace. Glancing X-ray diffraction (GXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) were used to reveal the phase compositions, microstructures, and concentration profiles of copper ions in the implanted layer. The results show that the antibacterial property of Cu-implanted SS is attributed to Cu_9.9Fe_0.1, which precipitated as needles. The depth of copper in Cu-implanted SS with annealing treatment is greater than that in Cu-implanted SS without annealing treatment, which improves the antibacterial property against S. aureus. The salt wetting-drying combined cyclic test was used to evaluate the corrosion-resistance of antibacterial SS, and the results reveal that the antibacterial SS has a level of corrosion-resistance equivalent to that of un-implanted SS.