Characterization of Ti-C-N coatings deposited on Ti6Al4V for biomedical applications.

Ti6Al4V alloy is the most commonly employed implant material for orthopedic replacements due to its good mechanical properties close to those of bones, biocompatibility and its good corrosion resistance in biological media. Nevertheless, it does not exhibit good wear resistance, showing friction and wear even with soft tissues. This latter feature can lead to a premature failure of the implant with the subsequent component replacement.

Effect of the growth conditions on the optical and mechanical properties of TiO2 and Al2O3 films.

The mechanical and optical properties of TiO2 and Al2O3 films deposited by DC reactive magnetron sputtering were analysed as a function of the deposition conditions. Two different sputtering powers and three different voltages targets which influence the pressure and the deposition rate were studied. The voltage corresponds to two different percentages of the turn down set point of the hysteresis curve and fully poisoned condition.

Characterisation of tribocorrosion behaviour of multilayer PVD coatings.

The effect of repassivation on tribocorrosion behaviour of two multilayer coatings of different structures is studied experimentally by measuring the variation of instantaneous open-circuit potential during friction. One coating consists of alternating Cr and CrN layers, while another consists of alternated layers of CrN and ZrN. Analysis of the results showed that friction force, i.