Effects of SiC nanoparticles on synthesis and antimicrobial activity of TiCu nanocrystalline powder

Effects of SiC nanoparticles addition on synthesis and antibacterial properties of TiCu nanocrystalline powder prepared through high energy mechanical milling were studied. The results showed that the synthesis of TiCu powder in the presence of the nanoparticles was accelerated and after mechanical alloying for 20 h, a TiCu/SiC nanocrystalline powder with the crystallite size < 5 nm, and 3.3% lattice micro-strain obtained. Further milling resulted in fully amorphous TiCu intermetallic alloy with more uniform distribution of SiC nanoparticles. The antibacterial activity of the synthesized powders was investigated by disk diffusion test. The TiCu/SiC nano-composites showed enhanced antibacterial effect against S. aureus and E. coli, and with increasing SiC content, the antibacterial behaviour was improved. This behaviour is attributed to high Cu2+ ion release as a result of particle size refinement with increasing SiC nanoparticles.