Biocompatibility and mechanical property evaluation of Zr-Ti-Fe based ternary thin film metallic glasses

Thin film metallic glasses (TFMGs) have been heavily studied recently due to their ability to improve structural integrity. These versatile materials can furthermore be engineered to encompass biomedical applications in addition to providing improved hardness and other such uses in altering the base materials. In this work, six Zr-Ti-Fe TFMGs were grown by a magnetron co-sputtering system using pure Fe, Zr, and Ti targets under different target power control. The Fe content of coatings increased from to 17.8 to 49.8 at.%. The amorphous phase of each coating was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope techniques, and a featureless cross-section microstructure was found for each coating. Very little pile-up was found after the nanoindentation test. The hardness and elastic modulus of TFMG increased from 5.4 to 10.4 GPa and 73 to 135 GPa, respectively, as the Fe content increased from 17.8 to 49.8 at.%. Each TFMG also had adequate adhesion by HRC-DB test. Good biocompatibility of each TFMG was confirmed with proliferation assay using MG-63 cells. Because of the intrinsic improvement on hardness, and the additional properties of biocompatibility, we can conclude that six thin film metallic glass materials show promising possibilities for biomedical application.