Corrosion and wear behaviours of a reactive-sputter-deposited Ta2O5 nanoceramic coating

• The novel coating markedly improves the surface hardness of Ti-6Al-4V.
• The wear rates of the coating are two orders of magnitude smaller than that of Ti-6Al-4V.
• The resistance of the coating is two orders of magnitude higher than that of Ti-6Al-4V.
• The β-Ta2O5 coating exhibited a lower carrier density than Ti-6Al-4V.