EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Since the 60’s, the interest of the scientific community for metallic glasses (MGs) has increased considerably. Thanks to their amorphous structure, they display intrinsic chemical homogeneity combined with a lack of crystallographic defects, leading to unique characteristics in comparison with conventional polycrystalline materials. Bulk MGs are synthetized from a fast quenching (which inhibits the crystallization process during the cooling stage) and results in a metastable amorphous phase. The cooling rate directly depends on the melted alloy composition, and only a narrow range of chemical composition and small pieces can be obtained in bulk state. However, due to the really fast cooling rate involved during the deposition process, magnetron sputtering is a well-adapted process to generate thin film metallic glasses (TFMGs) for a wide range of chemical compositions [1]. This allows a chemical optimization of TFMGs, depending on the targeted applications.
Within the wide panel of TFMGs, Zr-Cu-Ag TFMGs are of particular interest for biomedical applications, thanks to their good antibacterial and corrosion properties [2,3]. In this work, multifunctional properties of Zr-Cu-Ag TFMGs with various compositions (several Zr/Cu ratios and Ag contents) were evaluated. In particular, the antibacterial and corrosion properties of these films were investigated, and put in perspective with physico-chemical surface properties and microstructural observations. Results lead to optimal compositions, balancing between antibacterial properties and corrosion resistance.
[1] Mihai et al. J. Alloys Compd. 2015
[2] Etiemble et al. J. Alloys Compd. 2017
[3] Nkou Bouala et al., Surf Coat Tech. 2018