Preparation and Characterization of DC Magnetron Sputtered Thin Films of Titanium, Silver, Gold and Their Compound

Au and Ag thin films have diverse applications including clean energy generation, storage, biomedical implants, electronic devices and so on. However, developing biocompatible coating on medical implants and surgical instruments is essential for safe medical operations. Here, biocompatible thin films of Titanium (Ti), Silver (Ag), Gold (Au) and Ag-Au compound have been prepared by the DC magnetron sputtering method. To the best of our knowledge, the deposition of Ag-Au compound by sputtering and their biocompatibility test have been performed for the first time in this work. The surface morphology of the as-deposited thin films was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), where the elemental composition of the films was confirmed by the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. To investigate the cytotoxic effect of the prepared films, the MTT assay was conducted on human cells. The cytotoxicity test confirmed the biocompatibility of the prepared thin films.