Tribological and Electrochemical Properties of TiO2/DLC Coatings Produced on Ti-6Al-4V alloy by One-Step PEO

Ti-6Al-4V alloy exhibits exceptional corrosion resistance in body fluid but is limited by its susceptibility to wear.Various methods were applied to improve its performance.Among them, PEO obtained more interest, especially when used as a composite with carbonaceous material.This study investigates the effect of adding different concentrations of Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) nanoparticles during the one-step Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) process on the microstructure, surface roughness, corrosion behavior, and wear resistance of the coating layer.Microstructural, morphological, and compositional analysis was achieved using SEM, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy techniques.The results showed that DLC nanoparticles were successfully integrated into PEO coatings, improving the corrosion and wear resistance.The highest corrosion resistance and the lowest wear rate were obtained in the sample coatings with 2g/L of DLC nanoparticles, in which the wear rate was significantly lower than Ti-6Al-4V coated with and without DLC nanoparticles, respectively.