Effect of Gallium Addition on Mechanical and Antibacterial Properties of 304L Stainless Steel
MENG Yujia1,2, XI Tong2, YANG Chunguang2(), ZHAO Jinlong2, ZHANG Xinrui2, YU Yingjie2, YANG Ke2
1 School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang 110016, China 2 Shi -changxu Advanced Materials Innovation Center, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Cite this article:
MENG Yujia, XI Tong, YANG Chunguang, ZHAO Jinlong, ZHANG Xinrui, YU Yingjie, YANG Ke. Effect of Gallium Addition on Mechanical and Antibacterial Properties of 304L Stainless Steel. Acta Metall Sin, 2024, 60(7): 890-900.
As a new antibacterial metal element, Ga is widely used in the medical field and always added to compounds in ionic form to form Ga complexes for medicinal use. However, related research on the mechanical properties, antibacterial properties, and antibacterial mechanism of Ga-bearing alloys is still very limited. In this work, the effect of Ga addition on the mechanical properties of 304L austenitic stainless steel (304L SS) after solution treatment was investigated via metallographic observations and tensile strength and hardness tests. Moreover, the antibacterial properties of Ga-bearing 304L stainless steel (304L-Ga SS) were tested using plate counting and the activity state of bacteria on the surface of the material was detected using SEM. Based on the known Ga ion sterilization principle, the antibacterial mechanism of 304L-Ga SS was preliminarily discussed using the reactive oxygen species (ROS) fluorescence reaction and ion dissolution results of the material in different solution tests. Results showed that the structure of 304L-Ga SS is still austenitic like that of 304L SS. The Ga addition increases the yield strength and elongation of the material but decreases its tensile strength and hardness. The change in strength and elongation is the result of the synergistic effect of the increase in stacking fault energy and the solid solution strengthening. The Ga addition also slightly increases the lattice constant of stainless steel due to the replacement solid solution effect. In the passive film of 304L-Ga SS, Ga exists in alloy form. Because of their similarity to Fe ions, Ga ions dissolved from Ga in the passive film are inhaled into bacteria cells and cause high expression of ROS in the bacteria, causing oxidative stress, and bactericidal effect. Contact sterilization is one of the main bactericidal mechanisms of 304L-Ga SS. Adequate contact between the bacteria and stainless steel improves the dissolution of Ga due to the proton (H+) depletion reaction in the bacteria. At the same time, the production of additional ROS during the proton consumption reaction further enhances the antibacterial effect.
Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(52171242);Peak Climbing Project of Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine(202000206);Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS(2018221)
Corresponding Authors:
YANG Chunguang, professor, Tel: (024)23971899, E-mail: cgyang@imr.ac.cn
Table 1 Chemical compositions of the 304L and 304L-Ga stain-less steels (SS) samples
Fig.1 Size of tensile specimen (unit: mm)
Fig.2 SEM images of 304L SS (a) and 304L-Ga SS (b), and EDS distribution of Ga in 304L-Ga SS (c)
Fig.3 XRD spectra of 304L SS and 304L-Ga SS (a) and detailed scans for top diffraction peak (b)
Fig.4 Engineering stress-strain curves (a), and varia-tions of tensile and yield strengthes (b) and elongation and hardness (c) of 304L SS and 304L-Ga SS
Steel
RmMPa
RelMPa
A%
Hardness HV
304L SS
670
197 ± 4.2
58.6 ± 1.3
158.45 ± 6.29
304L-Ga SS
548.3 ± 17.6
210 ± 8.7
75.8 ± 3.3
153.14 ± 4.20
Table 2 Mechanical parameters of 304L and 304L-Ga stainless steels
Fig.5 Bacterial colonies of E. coli and S. mutans after co-culture with 304L SS and 304L-Ga SS (a) and the antibacterial rates of 304L-Ga SS against E. coli and S. mutans (b)
Fig.6 SEM images of E. coli (a, b) and S. mutans (c, d) after co-culture with 304L SS (a, c) and 304L-Ga SS (b, d) for 24 h
Fig.7 DCF fluorescence intensities (a) and MDA (b) of bacteria co-cultured with 304L SS and 304L-Ga SS at 37oC for 24 h (DCF—2',7'-dichlorofluorescein, MDA—malonadehyde, OD—optical density)
Fig.8 Ga3+ concentrations in different solutions after co-cultured with 304L-Ga SS at 37oC for 24 h (PBS—phosphate buffer solution)
Fig.9 Depth profiles of Ga concentrations on the surficial passivation film before (a) and after (b) soaking in the simulant saliva, and peak fitting curves of Ga3d spectrograms before soaking (a1-a3) and after soaking for different etch time (b1-b3)
Fig.10 Schematic of antibacterial mechanism of 304L-Ga SS
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