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Tribo‐Mechanical Properties of DLC Coatings Deposited on Nitrided Biomedical Stainless Steel
Author(s) -
Snyders Rony,
Bousser Etienne,
Amireault Philippe,
KlembergSapieha Jolanta E.,
Park Eunsung,
Taylor Kate,
Casey Kevin,
Martinu Ludvik
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.200731601
Subject(s) - materials science , nitriding , diamond like carbon , indentation , coating , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , metallurgy , nitride , nanoindentation , tribology , composite material , layer (electronics) , surface modification , biocompatibility , thin film , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , engineering
Diamond‐like carbon (DLC) coatings are frequently considered for biomedical applications due to their attractive tribo‐mechanical properties combined with good biocompatibility. In the present work, DLC coatings have been deposited on 316L stainless steel (SS) substrates. The duplex approach consisted of surface nitriding in a radio frequency (RF) discharge for the reinforcement of SS‐DLC bonding prior to DLC deposition (0.5 µm thick). Chemical composition and morphology of the nitrided SS were assessed by XPS and SEM, while depth‐sensing indentation, ball‐on‐flat tribometry, and microscratch testing were used to determine the tribo‐mechanical performance of the nitrided SS and of DLC coated SS samples. We found that the formation of a thick (∼1–2 µm), hard (15 GPa) metal nitride layer at the SS surface has a strong influence on enhancing the coating adhesion (critical load of 6.5 N) and wear resistance of DLC (wear factor 3–8 × 10 −8 mm 3 · N −1 · m −1 compared to 10 −5 mm 3 · N −1 · m −1 for nitrided SS).