Surface integrity study of TiO2 based Sol-gel spin coatings on SS316L

Abstract This work presents the surface integrity study of titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin film coatings on stainless steel (SS316L) substrate material. The effect of composition of sol–gel and heat treatment temperature on the surface morphology, roughness, wettability, and the friction characteristics is studied. Titanium (IV) butoxide used as TiO2 precursor for inducing a titania based layer on stainless steel substrate. Results indicate that the samples prepared using maximum pre-cursor content gave minimum roughness parameters (Ra = 0.078 μm; Rq = 0.093 μm; Rz = 0.591 μm), C.O.F. (0.233) and water contact angle (ϴs = 47.8°), thereby outperforming other samples and the substrate material. The work finds application in bio-medical implants.