Ag–Ti(C, N)-based coatings for biomedical applications: influence of silver content on the structural properties

Abstract

Ag-TiCN coatings were deposited by dc reactive magnetron sputtering and their structural and morphological properties were evaluated. Compositional analysis showed the existence of Ag-TiCN coatings with different Ag/Ti atomic ratios (ranging from 0 to 1.49). The structural and morphological properties are well correlated with the evolution of Ag/Ti atomic ratio. For the samples with low Ag/Ti atomic ratio (below 0.20) the coatings crystallize in a B1-NaCl crystal structure typical of TiC 0.3 N 0.7. The increase in Ag/Ti atomic ratio promoted the formation of Ag crystalline phases as well as amorphous CN x phases detected in both x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy analysis. Simultaneously to the formation of Ag crystalline phases and amorphous carbon-based phases, a decrease in TiC 0.3 N 0.7 grain size was observed as well as the densification of coatings.

Influence of Ag content on mechanical and tribological behavior of DLC coatings

“…Obviously the absence of Ag peaks in the samples with Ag content below 13.1 at.% cannot exclude the presence of small Ag clusters with sizes below 2 nm, which are not detectable in XRD analysis. Silver carbides were neither expected nor observed and our results corroborate the studies on similar coating systems [15, 26,27,28]. In fact, previous studies of DLC coatings alloyed with silver indicated that the microstructure of these coatings was characterized as random dispersion of metallic Ag nanoparticles in an amorphous C-matrix [28,29].…”

Structural and electrochemical characterization of Zr–C–N–Ag coatings deposited by DC dual magnetron sputtering

“…To the authors' knowledge there have not been any publication regarding ZrCN coatings modified with silver. This report aims to expand the state of the art of ZrCN coatings with antibacterial agents, similarly to a current study performed by the authors on the TiCN system [24]. Therefore, in this paper we report the production of ZrCN coatings with silver onto 316L stainless steel, assessing structural changes, as well as electrochemical stability in 8.9 g/L NaCl.…”

Influencia de las nanopartículas de Ag sobre las propiedades mecánicas y tribológicas y en el efecto citotóxico y bactericida de los recubrimientos de TaN(Ag)

“…La modificación superficial a partir del dopaje de recubrimientos de nitruros metálicos nanocristalinos como el TaN, ZrN, TiN, MoN, CrN y NbN, caracterizados por su alta estabilidad química y excelentes propiedades mecánicas, con nanopartícu-las de metales dúctiles como la Ag, (Manninen et al, 2011), surgen como alternativa para aplicaciones donde se requiere mejorar la resistencia al desgaste y el desempeño de algunos aceros inoxidables, titanio y aleaciones de titanio, entre otros. A la buena biocompatibilidad de los nitruros mencionados y su elevada dureza se suma el efecto auto-lubricante y bactericida de las nanopartículas, potenciando aún más sus aplicaciones (Muratore et al, 2007;Echeverrigaray et al, 2016;Falconer y Grainger, 2017).…”