Fabrication of chitosan-graft-polyaniline-based multilayers on Ti substrates for enhancing antibacterial property and improving osteogenic activity

Abstract Bacterial-associated infection and poor osseointegration usually led to the failure of titanium (Ti)-based in orthopedic implantation. To solve above issues, a bioactive coating consisted of gelatin (Gel) and chitosan-graft-polyaniline (Chi-PANI) was fabricated with layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly technique on titanium dioxide nanotubes (TNT) substrates. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle (WCA) measurement X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) results confirmed that the multilayers coating was successfully formed on TNT substrates. Antibacterial assay proved that the prepared sample (TNT-LBL (PANI)) had stronger ability against the adhesion and growth of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Besides, the prepared substrate was beneficial for osteoblast adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. Thus, these results shed light on the biocompatibility of PANI in enhancing antibacterial property and osteoblast activity for potential orthopedic application.