A Study of ZrN/Zr Coatings Deposited on NiTi Alloy by PIIID Technique

$hboxZrN_x/hboxZr$
ceramic/metal coatings were deposited onto NiTi shape-memory alloy using plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition technique in order to prolong the service lifetime of NiTi implants in clinical application. The surface characteristics and microstructure were investigated by atomic force microscope, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry. The results showed that the coating surface has a mean roughness of 7.487 nm and root-mean-square roughness of 9.065 nm over the area the image and a cubic face-centered lattice of NaCl-type
$hboxZrN_0.83$
coating was obtained. The electrochemical test demonstrated that the
$hboxZrN_0.83/hboxZr$
coating can greatly improved the corrosion-resistant property in Hank's solution, which has a great significance for the biomedical application of NiTi alloy.