Owing to the desired mechanical and biomedical characteristics of TiN-based coatings and the encourage features of pulsed magnetron sputtering, the current study was conducted to deposit Ti-Al-N thin film on AISI 316 using DC pulsed magnetron sputtering. All processing parameters were constant excluding the pulsed magnetron power which was varied from 100 to 175 W. The effect of processing power on the structure, mechanical, electrochemical, and biocompatibility characteristics of Ti-Al-N thin films were inspected. X-ray outlines the formation of (Ti, Al)N solid solution with (111) preferred orientation at high-pulsed magnetron powers. The outcomes of this study demonstrated that the Vickers’s microhardness of Ti-Al-N coatings increased with increasing pulsed power to record a value of nearly 810 HV0.015 at 175 W. Moreover, the wear characteristics and the friction coefficient of the coated AISI 316 with Ti-Al-N were ascendant as compared with the uncoated substrate. The wear rate of Ti-Al-N films deposited at pulsed power of 175 W recorded a value of nearly 4.7 × 10⁻⁶ mm³/Nm which was very low compared with that of stainless steel substrate (3.2 × 10⁻⁴ mm³/Nm). The biological peculiarities of Ti-Al-N films were examined by exploring the proliferation rate of MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells on the film surface. The results reflected that the proliferation rate of the osteoblast cells were enhanced on Ti-Al-N films deposited at pulsed powers of 150 and 175 W. The biological attitudes were discussed according to the results of surface roughness and surface energy besides the surface chemical compositions.

中文翻译：

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直流脉冲磁控溅射合成Ti-Al-N薄膜的物理，电化学和生物相容性

由于基于TiN的涂层具有理想的机械和生物医学特性以及脉冲磁控溅射的令人鼓舞的特性，目前的研究是使用DC脉冲磁控溅射在AISI 316上沉积Ti-Al-N薄膜。除脉冲磁控管功率在100至175 W之间变化外，所有处理参数都是恒定的。检查了处理功率对Ti-Al-N薄膜的结构，机械，电化学和生物相容性特性的影响。X射线概述了在高脉冲磁控管功率下具有（111）优先取向的（Ti，Al）N固溶体的形成。这项研究的结果表明，Ti-Al-N涂层的维氏显微硬度随着脉冲功率的增加而增加，从而在175 W时记录了接近810 HV0.015的值。与未涂覆的基材相比，涂覆有Ti-Al-N的AISI 316涂层的磨损特性和摩擦系数上升。以175 W的脉冲功率沉积的Ti-Al-N薄膜的磨损率记录为接近4.7×10^-6  mm ³ / Nm与不锈钢基板相比非常低（3.2×10 ^-4  mm ³ / Nm）。通过探索膜表面MC3T3-E1成骨细胞的增殖速率，检查了Ti-Al-N膜的生物学特性。结果表明，在150和175 W的脉冲功率下沉积的Ti-Al-N薄膜上成骨细胞的增殖速率得到了提高。除了表面化学成分以外，还根据表面粗糙度和表面能的结果讨论了生物学态度。 。