Orderly polyetheretherketone micro/nanoarrays: fabrication, antibacterial property and cell behavior study

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has been widely studied as biomaterials for implant, due to its excellent mechanical properties. A good implant material should possess antibacterial ability to inhibit infection and improve cell adhesion and proliferation after surgery at the same time. Methods such as sulfonation have been developed to modify the bioinert and hydrophobic properties of PEEK, but they are at the expense of alteration of the composition and the related properties. Inspired by the antibacterial mechanism of cicada wings, we prepared a range of micro/nanoarrays on the surface of PEEK using soft lithography and reactive ion etching without significantly impairing the beneficial properties of PEEK. The antimicrobial tests revealed that the shape and the dimension of these arrays caused the remarkable diversity in their antibacterial abilities, and the microarray PEEK had an excellent resistance against E. coli at different periods. Also, compared with the untreated PEEK, the superhydrophilic property of the array facilitates the adhesion and growth of osteoblasts on the surface of PEEK, These results demonstrate that the fabrication of microarray on the surface of PEEK is a promising way to make PEEK a better candidate for orthopedic implant materials, shedding light on antibacterial surface construction based on topography only.