Combinatorial development of antibacterial Zr-Cu-Al-Ag thin film metallic glasses

Abstract

Metallic alloys are normally composed of multiple constituent elements in order to achieve integration of a plurality of properties required in technological applications. However, conventional alloy development paradigm, by sequential trial-and-error approach, requires completely unrelated strategies to optimize compositions out of a vast phase space, making alloy development time consuming and labor intensive. Here, we challenge the conventional paradigm by proposing a combinatorial strategy that enables parallel screening of a multitude of alloys. Utilizing a typical metallic glass forming alloy system Zr-Cu-Al-Ag as an example, we demonstrate how glass formation and antibacterial activity, two unrelated properties, can be simultaneously characterized and the optimal composition can be efficiently identified. We found that in the Zr-Cu-Al-Ag alloy system fully glassy phase can be obtained in a wide compositional range by co-sputtering, and antibacterial activity is strongly dependent on alloy compositions. Our results indicate that antibacterial activity is sensitive to Cu and Ag while essentially remains unchanged within a wide range of Zr and Al. The proposed strategy not only facilitates development of high-performing alloys, but also provides a tool to unveil the composition dependence of properties in a highly parallel fashion, which helps the development of new materials by design.

Tuning the antimicrobial behaviour of Cu85Zr15 thin films in “wet” and “dry” conditions through structural modifications

“…At the same time, the high affinity of Cu 2+ ions with phosphorus-and sulphur-containing compounds rich in the inner part of the cells will further the damage, conferring copper its high contact killing properties [44,60]. Streptococcus mutans) deposited on copper-rich surfaces indicates progressive damage to the cell wall [61], but the timeframes are much longer (up to 24 h) than those used in the present work (up to 4 h). In addition, S. aureus is more resistant to damage caused by copper due to their the ability to agglomerate and the numerous mechanisms available to resist environmental copper [62].…”

“…coli in the form of cell shrinkage, apparition of pits and cavities and loss of its natural rod shape is commonly reported in the literature as a direct effect of copper contact with E. coli [56,58,59]. The TEM images reveal that while some degree of damage has been done to the cell membrane, it has not been enough to affect its rod-like morphology.…”

Review on Quantum Mechanically Guided Design of Ultra-Strong Metallic Glasses

“…To validate the representativeness of the ab initio configuration and the properties predicted directly by ab initio calculations, a high-throughput synthesis and characterization route is required. To explore a large compositional range, the use of sample libraries with spatially resolved analysis techniques has been proven efficient (Sakurai et al, 2007.;Deng et al, 2007;Li et al, 2008Li et al, , 2019Aono et al, 2010Aono et al, , 2011Guo et al, 2011;Sakurai et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2011;Ding et al, 2012Ding et al, , 2014Gregoire et al, 2012;Flores, 2014, 2016;Liu et al, 2016; FIGURE 1 | Pair distribution function g(r) of experimentally and ab initio calculated Co 45.5 Fe 24 Ta 6 B 24.5 . Inset: structure factor S(q) of the experimental sample (Hostert et al, 2011).…”

Vidros Metálicos Maciços: O Que São E Para Que Servem?

“…Dentre esses avanços, destacaram-se: o clássico rápido resfriamento a partir do estado líquido [16][17][18] além da têmpera com laser pulsado [19], derrame de líquido em roda fria ("melt spinning") [20], metalurgia do pó [21,22] e pulverização atômica magnética ("magnetron sputtering") [23][24][25]. Um novo método de fabricação de VMMs, denominado procedimento combinatorial através de co-pulverização atômica ("combinatorial approaching via co-sputtering") [26][27], acelerou a descoberta de novos VMMs, inclusive em sistemas binários, tais como Ni-Nb, Zr-Pd, Au-Si e Cu-Zr [15]. Como consequência de todo esse esforço de processamento, centenas de ligas metálicas vítreas maciças foram, e continuam sendo, desenvolvidas desde a década de 70.…”