Tribological behaviour of RF-magnetron sputter deposited hydroxyapatite coatings in physiological solution

Abstract The aim of the paper is to explore the tribological performance of hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering on AZ31 magnesium alloy (96% Mg, 3% Al, 0.7% Zn, 0.3% Mn) for biomedical applications. In this study, the position of the samples on a substrate holder, relative to a target erosion zone was taken into consideration in order to elucidate its impact on the coating characteristics, such as composition, morphology, surface topography and tribology. Substrate rotation and arc-movement were foreseen in the experimental set-up to increase the uniformity of thin film properties. The deposited HA thin films were revealed to exhibit an increase of the Ca/P ratio from 1.83 to 1.97, a decrease of (002) texture and thickness, as the samples were shifted towards the target erosion zone. By coatings, the roughness of Mg alloy was decreased (R a Mg alloy =31.3 nm; R a coating =29 nm and 21 nm). The coating placed in the centre of the substrate holder showed high hardness and Young's modulus ( H =8.3±0.9 GPa; E =89±10 GPa) than the coating prepared under the target erosion zone ( H =6.9±1.1 GPa; E =75±6 GPa). The coating deposited under target erosion zone exhibits superior friction behaviour in simulated body fluid environment, with the friction coefficient (μ) of 0.184, while the sample located in the centre of the substrate holder possesses the friction coefficient (0.306) comparable to the AZ31 substrate (0.307). The low wear rate was determined in the case of coating deposited under target erosion zone (4.83×10 −5  mm 3 N −1 m −1 ) than uncoated AZ31 substrate (0.00518 mm 3 N −1 m −1 ) or than coating placed in the centre of the substrate holder (0.00294 mm 3 N −1 m −1 ).