Plasma‐Mediated Modification of Austenitic Stainless Steel: Application to the Prevention of Yeast Adhesion

The work is focused on defining a stainless steel surface treatment to prevent microbial adhesion. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was selected as the model for eukaryotic cells. Different surface cleaning procedures, including chemical and plasma-mediated treatments, were studied. Detachment experiments displayed no modification in yeast adhesion, despite significant variations in the physico-chemical properties of the solid surface. Plasma-mediated thin coatings (≈375 nm) were then deposited on stainless steel applying hexamethyldisiloxane/ oxygen plasma. FT-IR study revealed a dense Si-O-Si network, while XPS analysis detected no more iron or chromium at the extreme surface. Detachment experiments demonstrated that these films were successful in preventing cell adhesion, due to a barrier effect.