Development of Ti–C–N coatings with improved tribological behavior and antibacterial properties

• Ti–C–N coatings were developed with the aim to increase the life of knee implants.
• The synergistic effect of wear and corrosion were studied by tribocorrosion tests.
• Fretting tests were performed trying to reproduce real working conditions.
• Antibacterial properties were provided with the deposition of a silver film.
• The selected Ti–C–N coating improved the properties of Ti6Al4V.

In artificial metallic joint implants, the failure is provoked by two effects in most of the cases: mass loss and wear debris removed due to tribological-corrosive effects on the implant alloy, and infections due to the presence of bacteria. In this work, several Ti–C–N corrosion and wear protective coatings were developed by Physical Vapour Deposition technology, and deposited on Ti6Al4V alloy. In order to provide the implant antibacterial properties, an additional silver top coating has been deposited. Tribological behavior was characterized through tribocorrosion and fretting tests. On the other hand, wettability tests were performed to study the grade of hydrophilicity/hydrophobia. Additionally, antibacterial properties were evaluated by means of bacterial adhesion tests. As a result of these characterization studies, the coating with the best performance was selected. The as-coated material includes excellent protection against tribocorrosion and fretting effects (in relation to the uncoated one) and the silver layer has been confirmed to exhibit antibacterial properties.

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