Wear and corrosion resistance of anti-bacterial Ti–Cu–N coatings on titanium implants

•Anti-bacterial Ti–Cu–N coatings with 6μm in thickness were successfully fabricated.•The coatings are composed of TiN, Ti2N, TiN0.3 phases.•The surface micro-hardness reaches to 950 HV0.05.•The anti-bacterial coatings exhibit superior wear and corrosion resistance. Anti-bacterial coatings with excellent wear and corrosion resistance play a vital role in ensuring the durability of implant materials in constant use. To this end, a novel anti-bacterial surface modification by combining magnetron sputtering with plasma nitriding was adopted in this paper to fabricate Cu-bearing Ti-based nitrides coatings (Ti–Cu–N) on titanium surface. The anti-bacterial properties of Ti–Cu–N coatings were evaluated. The microstructures and composition of the coatings were investigated by using FESEM, EDS, GDOES, XRD. The wear and corrosion resistance of the coatings were investigated. The results confirmed that an anti-bacterial Ti–Cu–N coating with a thickness of 6μm and good adhesive strength to substrate was successfully achieved on titanium surface. As implied by XRD, the coatings were consisted of TiN, Ti2N, TiN0.3 phases. The surface micro-hardness and wear resistance of Ti–Cu–N coatings were significantly enhanced after plasma nitriding treatment. The analysis of potentiodynamic polarization curves and Nyquist plots obtained in 0.9wt.% NaCl solution suggested that the Ti–Cu–N coatings also exhibited an excellent corrosion resistance. As mentioned above, it can be concluded that the duplex-treatment reported here was a versatile approach to develop anti-bacterial Ti–Cu–N coatings with excellent comprehensive properties on titanium implants.