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The surface characteristics of biomaterials play an important role in their interaction with biological systems. Tantalum (Ta) oxides and their coatings have been proved to increase their applications in the biomedical fields such as medical devices and dental implants by improving their osseointegration and corrosion resistance. In this study, Ta and amorphous tantalum oxide coatings were deposited by using magnetron sputtering. A hydrophilic crystalline β-Ta 2 O 5 coating was obtained by rapid thermal annealing of the deposited tantalum oxide coating at 700 °C. In this study, Staphylococcus aureus and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans ( A. actinomycetemcomitans ) are Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, respectively, that exhibit physiological commensalism on the human skin and oral areas. Both bacteria were chosen as the model for in vitro anti-bacterial analyses by a fluorescence staining method employing Syto9. The cytocompatibility of human skin fibroblast cells (CCD-966SK) on the coatings was also determined using an MTT assay. It showed that the amorphous tantalum oxide coatings possessed good antibacterial performance, while the hydrophilic crystalline tantalum oxide coatings exhibited outperformed human skin fibroblast cellular biocompatibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tantalum is considered a highly biocompatible metal with high corrosion resistance. Metal-doped amorphous carbon films are gaining interest as an effective surface modifier for medical devices. In this study, tantalum (Ta), TaC/amorphous carbon (a-C), and Ta-containing amorphous hydrogenated carbon films (Ta-C:H) were synthesized using a twin-gun magnetron sputtering system to improve biological properties and explore potential applications for surgical implants or devices. Reactive C2H2, activated by the tantalum plasma in the magnetron sputtering process, was used to deposit the Ta-C:H coatings. The deposited TaC/a-C coatings, in which TaC was embedded in the amorphous carbon matrix as a nanocomposite film, exhibited favorable cell viability of the human osteosarcoma cell line (MG-63), similar to uncoated titanium. Among the examined materials, Ta-C:H coatings exhibited the highest biocompatibility for WS1 human fetal skin fibroblast cells derived from soft tissues and demonstrated the highest biological performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]