Wear Behavior Of Polyethylene Against Titanium Nitride Coated Alloy Surfaces For Joint Replacement

The introduction of joint arthroplasty has revolutionized orthopedic surgery. For decades, clinicians and engineers have worked together to design and realized some durable and efficient implants able to reproduce the functional goal of biological structures while reducing the adverse reactions induced by their introduction inside the human body. However, despite the great reached results, not a single material has been identified as perfect when performing in-vivo and the production of wear debris is still considered one of the main drawbacks of this kind of implants. In order to outweigh these issues, modern researches have found in surface coatings the opportunity to functionally tune the external properties of the implant while maintaining the original mechanical properties of the substrate material. In particular, one material has revealed to be particularly promising due to its characteristics: Titanium Nitride. This work is entirely dedicated to the exploration of the properties of Titanium Nitride (TiN) as a coating material, with a particular focus on their dependency on the coating process and on the working conditions. The performances of this material have been tested and compared to the ones of the uncoated substrates and the obtained results have been critically analyzed paying the way for further interesting developments that are presented in the conclusive chapter of this document.