Improvement in corrosion resistance of 316L stainless steel in simulated body fluid mixed with antiplatelet drugs by coating with Ti-doped DLC films for application in biomaterials

The structures of pure (DLC), 5.33 at% Ti-doped (DLC:Ti_1), and 15.24 at% Ti-doped (DLC:Ti_2) DLC films coated on 316L SS were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Their corrosion behavior was studied using electrochemical techniques. DLC:Ti_1 exhibited outstanding corrosion resistance with the lowest icorr and highest Rp. Its corrosion resistance improved further when antiplatelet drugs [ticlopidine (T1) and aspirin (A1)] were present in the simulated body fluid (SBF), as indicated by the increase in the inhibition efficiency of DLC:Ti_1-SBF from 84.21 to 93.26 and to 97.04% for both DLC:Ti_1-A1 and DLC:Ti_1-T1, respectively.