Surface properties and biocompatibility of nanostructured TiO(2) film deposited by RF magnetron sputtering

Nanostructured TiO(2) films are deposited on a silicon substrate using 150-W power from the RF magnetron sputtering at working pressures of 3 to 5 Pa, with no substrate bias, and at 3 Pa with a substrate bias of −50 V. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis reveals that TiO(2) films deposited on unbiased as well as biased substrates are all amorphous. Surface properties such as surface roughness and wettability of TiO(2) films, grown in a plasma environment, under biased and unbiased substrate conditions are reported according to the said parameters of RF power and the working pressures. Primary rat osteoblasts (MC3T3-E1) cells have been cultured on nanostructured TiO(2) films fabricated at different conditions of substrate bias and working pressures. The effects of roughness and hydrophilicity of nanostructured TiO(2) films on cell density and cell spreading have been discussed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-015-0732-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.