The influence of nano-scale surface roughness on bacterial adhesion to ultrafine-grained titanium.

We discuss the effect of extreme grain refinement in the bulk of commercial purity titanium (CP, Grade-2) on bacterial attachment to the mechano-chemically polished surfaces of the material. The ultrafine crystallinity of the bulk was achieved by severe plastic deformation by means of equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). The chemical composition, wettability, surface topography and roughness of titanium surfaces were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and water contact angle (WCA) measurements, as well as atomic force microscopy (AFM) with 3D interactive visualization of the titanium surface morphology.