Filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition of tetrahedral amorphous carbon thin films on surgical blades and its corrosion resistance in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) at pH 7.4

Abstract

Surgical blades are prone to corrosion in a body fluid environment, increasing the risk of surgical infection and inflammation. In this paper, the ta-C thin films was deposited on surgical blades by filtered cathode vacuum arc (FCVA) method. Modern analytical methods such as SEM, Raman, surface profiler and electrochemical corrosion were used for the test and analysis. The results show that the corrosion potential and corrosion current density of uncoated surgical blades are −507 mV and 2.43 μA/cm2 during surgery operation in a simulated human environment (pH 7.4 PBS solution), and the corrosion potential of the ta-C thin films surgical blades immersed in 0.25 h, 0.5 h and 1 h are −395 mV, −431 mV, −445 mV, and the corrosion current density are 1.11 μA/cm2, 1.46 μA/cm2, 1.58 μA/ cm2. The results show that the ta-C thin films surgical blades are excellent corrosion resistance during surgery operation in a simulated human environment. SEM shows that the ta-C thin films surgical blades have a smooth surface with a compact and uniform films structure, and the thicknesses of the ta-C thin films and Ti transition layer are 2.2 µm and 2.4 µm respectively. The surface profiler shows that the average roughness of the surgical blades and the ta-C thin films surgical blades are 295.979 nm and 477.417 nm. Raman shows that ta-C thin films is of high purity, without any impurity phase, and does not cause other adverse reactions during surgery operation.