Titanium nitride (TiN) was deposited on the surface of a cobalt-chromium (Co-Cr) alloy by a hot-wall type chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor at 850 °C, and the coating characteristics were compared with those of a physical vapor deposition (PVD) TiN coating deposited on the same alloy at 450 °C. Neither coating showed any reactions at the interface. The face-centered cubic (fcc) structure of the alloy was changed into a hexagonal close-packed (hcp) phase, and recrystallization occurred over at 10 μm of depth from the surface after CVD coating. Characteristic precipitates were also generated incrementally depending on the depth, unlike the precipitates in the matrix of the as-cast alloy. On the other hand, the microstructure and phase of the PVD-coated alloy did not change. Depth-dependent nano-hardness measurements showed a greater increase in hardness in the recrystallization zone of the CVD-coated alloy than in the bulk center of the alloy. The CVD coating showed superior adhesion to the PVD coating in the progressive scratch test. The as-cast, PVD-coated, and CVD-coated alloys all showed negative cytotoxicity. Within the limitations of this study, CVD TiN coating to biomedical Co-Cr alloy may be considered a promising alternative to PVD technique.
Keywords: chemical vapor deposition; cobalt–chromium alloy; microstructure; physical vapor deposition; titanium nitride.