Doped TiO2 anodic layers of enhanced antibacterial properties

[Display omitted] ► In this work, a new formulation of the anodizing bath has been developed to fabricate fluoride-containing barrier films (FBL) with no change in topography. ► This paper demonstrates the enhanced antibacterial properties achieved by the F incorporated in TiO2 oxide layer grown by anodizing process. ► The studies performed on this FBL films discriminate the effect of the F from the surface nanostructure on bacterial adhesion. ► The bacterial adhesion studies performed shows a statistically significant decrease in the bacterial adhesion in comparison to fluorine free barrier layers (BL). Ti–6Al–4V joint replacement implants foster uncemented fixation in orthopaedic surgery. However, bacterial colonization competes with host cells and ultimately may produce implant-related difficult-to-treat infections, justifying the efforts to obtain infection-resistant materials. In a previous work, the authors demonstrated the antibacterial properties of anodic fluoride-TiO2 nanostructured layers on Ti–6Al–4V alloy. In this work, the anodizing bath has been modified in order to grow fluoride-TiO2 barrier layers (FBL). A bacterial adherence protocol, run with reference and six different clinical strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis, showed a statistically significant decrease in the percentage of covered surface (p