Physical deposition of carbon doped titanium nitride film by DC magnetron sputtering for metallic implant coating use

Alloys exposed to tissue environment are at risk to corrosive breakdown. The corrosion behaviour of carbon doped titanium nitride films was studied. The C-TiN films were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering. The obtained films were investigated to be used as protective layers for medical implants. The films were analysed using XRD, SEM with EDX, FTIR, Raman, UV-vis and potentiodynamic polarization. Analysis indicated that doping with carbon in low concentration led to form titanium carbide. The measured values of corrosion current densities (I-corr, (substrate) = 2.020 mu A/cm(2), I-corr, (coating) = 0.175 mu A/cm(2)) indicate that the deposited films improved the corrosion resistance of the pure titanium. Comparison between the corrosion current densities of two samples (uncoated and coated pure titanium) showed a reduction of 91% in corrosion current density for coated Ti compared to the uncoated one. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.