Advanced synthesis and characterization of DLC-based nanocomposite coatings for biomedical applications

该项目旨在开发大规模生产技术，通过开发一种集成的物理和化学气相沉积系统，利用溅射、等离子体和端霍尔离子源来提高生物医学植入物的寿命和生物医学性能，从而在生物医学植入物上获得附着力的类金刚石(DLC)基纳米复合涂层。需要解决的关键问题包括引入不同的碳源来提高沉积速度，纳米结构，以及新的界面设计来提高类金刚石涂层与植入基材的附着力。将探索的技术包括液态碳氢化合物来源，新开发的纳米夹层和纳米涂层，以及用于表征的同步加速器光谱。**团队成员拥有互补的专业知识和丰富的研究经验，使用各种先进技术在钛合金、钴合金和不锈钢等各种衬底上合成和表征基于金刚石和类金刚石的涂层，这些技术包括等离子体增强气相沉积、离子束沉积、生物医学评估和基于同步加速器的X射线光谱分析。另一方面，支持组织率先开发了用于涂层沉积的气相沉积设备。具体地说，这些公司已经成功地开发了各种新型沉积系统和新型加工工艺。显然，所有合作伙伴都有互补的专业知识和设备，因此，研究人员和公司之间的合作伙伴关系将产生强大的协同效应，以解决将DLC基纳米复合涂层用于生物医学应用的关键问题。该项目的建成将为加拿大人带来巨大的社会效益和经济效益，因为沉积系统和合成技术都可以直接投放市场，充分利用DLC在各种生物医学和工业应用中的出色性能。特别是，新工艺将能够在生物医用金属上大面积生产基于DLC的涂层，这将使高性能生物医学植入物商业化，以提高生活质量。

This project aims to develop large scale production techniques to obtain adherent diamond like carbon (DLC) based nanocomposite coatings on biomedical implants by developing an integrated physical and chemical vapor deposition system with sputtering, plasma, and end hall ion sources for improved lifetime and biomedical performance. The key issues to be addressed include introduction of different carbon sources to increase the deposition rates, nanostructures, and new interfacial designs to improve the adhesion of DLC based coatings to the implant substrates. The techniques to be explored include liquid hydrocarbon sources, the newly developed nanointerlayers and nanocoatings, and synchrotron based spectroscopy for characterization. ** The team members have complementary expertise and extensive research experience in the synthesis and characterization of diamond and DLC based coatings on various substrates including titanium alloys, cobalt alloys, and stainless steels using various advanced techniques including plasma enhanced vapor deposition, ion beam deposition, biomedical evaluation, and synchrotron based X-ray spectroscopy. On the other hand, the supporting organizations pioneer in vapor deposition equipment for coating deposition. Specifically, the companies have successfully developed various novel deposition systems and novel processing procedures. It is evident that all the partners have complementary expertise and equipment, and thus the development of a partnership among the researchers and the companies would produce strong synergy for addressing the critical issues in using DLC based nanocomposite coatings for biomedical applications. The completion of the project will produce significant societal and economic benefit to Canadians as both the deposition systems and synthesis techniques can be directly delivered to the market to make full use of the outstanding properties of DLC for various biomedical and industrial applications. In particular, the new processes will enable large area production of DLC based coatings on biomedical metals, which will commercialize high performance biomedical implants to improve quality of life.********************