Surface modification of additive manufactured Ti6Al4V alloy with Ag nanoparticles: wettability and surface morphology study

In this work, the use of electrophoretic deposition to modify the surface of Ti6Al4V alloy fabricated via additive manufacturing technology is reported. Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP)-stabilized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) had a spherical shape with a diameter of the metallic core of 100 +/- 20 nm and zeta-potential -15 mV. The AgNPs-coated Ti6Al4V alloy was studied in respect with its chemical composition and surface morphology, water contact angle, hysteresis, and surface free energy. The results of SEM microphotography analysis showed that the AgNPs were homogeneously distributed over the surface. Hysteresis and water contact angle measurements revealed the effect of the deposited AgNPs layer, namely an increased water contact angle and decreased contact angle hysteresis. However, the average water contact angle was 125 degrees for PVP-stabilized-AgNPs-coated surface, whereas ethylene glycol gave the average contact angle of 17 degrees. A higher surface energy is observed for AgNPs-coated Ti6Al4V surface (70.17 mN/m) compared with the uncoated surface (49.07 mN/m).