Electrophoretic deposition of core-shell Ag@MSN incorporated-chitosan coatings with biocompatible and antibacterial activities

Antibacterial modification of Ti implants with silver-loaded coatings is usually challenged by toxic effects from aggregation of silver nanoparticles and lack of control of silver ion release. To overcome these drawbacks, silver nanoparticles were pre-encapsulated in mesoporous silica nanocarriers (MSN) by a sol-gel method, and then homogeneously incorporated into a chitosan coating with the help of electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique. Due to the shielding effect of MSN shell and the stabilization effect of the chitosan matrix, the silver-loaded coating exhibited sustained ion release with excellent antibacterial activity and significantly improved osteoblast cell viability compared to free nanoparticles. This study exploited the capability of EPD on manipulating silver-loaded nanocarrier for biofunctionalization of metallic implants, which is also applicable to a series of drug delivery systems containing other therapeutic elements or biomolecules. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.