Pacific Rim Symposium on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces (PacSurf 2018)
    Thin Films Tuesday Sessions
       Session TF-TuP

Paper TF-TuP4
Solute Ag Atom Incorporated into TaN with Excellent Tribological Property and Robust Antibacterial Activity

Tuesday, December 4, 2018, 4:00 pm, Room Naupaka Salon 1-3

Session: Thin Films Poster Session I
Presenter: Ping Ren, State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering and Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials, MOE, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, People's Republic of China
Authors: P. Ren, State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering and Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials, MOE, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, People's Republic of China
M. Wen, State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering and Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials, MOE, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, People's Republic of China
Correspondent: Click to Email
Nowadays, designing transition metal nitrides (TMN)-based films deposited on Ti-6Al-4V substrates with enhanced wear-resistance, anti-bacteria and a reduced friction represents urgent challenge for various application including bistoury scalpel, medical catheter, door handle and kitchen utensils et al. Generally, incorporating higher content (> 10 at.%) of antibacterial metallic phase (i.e. Cu, Ag) into TMN matrix to form the TMN/metal nanocomposite film has been considered as an effective approach to achieve improved toughness and antibacterial activity. However, in this system, hardness and wear rate are highly sensitive to soft metal content and can be significantly worsened. Herein, we provide a new strategy to introduce few solute Ag atoms (~ 3.08 at.% Ag) into TaN lattice to form a Ta-Ag-N solid solution structure, simultaneously achieving superhard (~ 40 GPa) yet high toughness, and improved wear-resistance, coupled with remarkable decrease in friction relative to Ag-free TaN film and TaN/Ag nanocomposition film with the same Ag content. In addition, the solid solution Ta-Ag-N film exhibits the excellent antimicrobial activity on Escherichia coli tested by measuring the diameters of the bacteriostasis circles. Obviously, introduction of few solute Ag atoms into TMN may open a new window to improve the comprehensive properties including hardness, toughness, friction, wear-resistance and anti-bacterial.