Tribological characterization of TiVN trilayer coatings synthesized by sputtering for biomedical applications

Abstract

The behavior of TiVN on the tribological and mechanical properties of titanium, as well as its biocompatibility for use as a biomaterial, is studied. The coatings are deposited using direct current magnetron sputtering on titanium substrates, with varying deposited power of titanium and vanadium on the surface layer. During the process of obtaining the TiVN coating, TiN and VN are deposited as interlayers to enhance the adhesion between the coatings and the substrates. The average thickness of the obtained coatings is 1.2 μm. The chemical characterization, nanohardness tests, and tribocorrosive behavior are evaluated using potentiodynamic polarization tests., A pin-on-disk wear test was used to study the tribocorrosion behavior of the coating systems and determine their synergistic behavior. The coupling with potentiodynamic polarization tests improved the corrosion resistance of the system from 2.76 μ to 1.86 μA. Notably, there was a significant enhancement in corrosion resistance, with average corrosion current values of 2.54 μA/cm2 and a coefficient of friction of 0.35. Additionally, hardness values of 15.6 GPa were observed, compared to 4.51 GPa for the substrate., As the working power for each element was increased. As well as exhibiting good behavior in the relationship between wear and corrosion for TiVN1 to TiVN4 coatings, there was an antagonistic-synergistic behavior observed for the TiVN5 to TiVN8 coatings. Additionally, the biocompatibility of the ternary systems was evaluated, and the samples incubated in the TiVN coatings showed good cell viability.