Sputtered titanium oxynitride coatings for endosseous applications: Physical and chemical evaluation and first bioactivity assays

•Titanium oxynitride coatings (TiNxOy) with chemical composition ranging from TiN to TiO2 were deposited by magnetron sputtering from a metallic Ti target using a mixture of O2+N2.•The coatings structure as well as physical, chemical and mechanical properties progressively changes as a function of oxygen content in the TiNxOy.•All TiNxOy coatings show a significantly higher level of bioactivity as compared to bare Ti substrates (1.2 to 1.4 fold increase in cell proliferation). Despite variations in surface chemistry, topography and surface tension observed on films as a function of chemical composition, no significant differences in the films’ biological activity were observed after 3 days of testing. Titanium oxynitride coatings (TiNxOy) are considered a promising material for applications in dental implantology due to their high corrosion resistance, their biocompatibility and their superior hardness. Using the sputtering technique, TiNxOy films with variable chemical compositions can be deposited. These films may then be set to a desired value by varying the process parameters, that is, the oxygen and nitrogen gas flows. To improve the control of the sputtering process with two reactive gases and to achieve a variable and controllable coating composition, the plasma characteristics were monitored in-situ by optical emission spectroscopy. TiNxOy films were deposited onto commercially pure (ASTM 67) microroughened titanium plates by reactive magnetron sputtering. The nitrogen gas flow was kept constant while the oxygen gas flow was adjusted for each deposition run to obtain films with different oxygen and nitrogen contents. The physical and chemical properties of the deposited films were analyzed as a function of oxygen content in the titanium oxynitride. The potential application of the coatings in dental implantology was assessed by monitoring the proliferation and differentiation of human primary osteoblasts.