Research on in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility of the low-friction Ti+C/amorphous carbon gradient multilayer films for hard tissue engineering

Ti+C/amorphous carbon (a-C) gradient multilayer (GM) films are prepared on the Ti-alloy substrates via physical vapor deposition. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the Ti atoms combine with the a-C film to form a TiC phase in the inner layer and the sputtering current significantly influences the amount of the TiC phase. Further, the mechanical properties of the Ti+C/a-C GM films were obtained using nanoindentation, and the results...