Theodore Scabarozi, Gregory Taylor, Steven DiSpirito, Samuel Lofland, Jeffrey Hettinger, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ
In response to demand for new and alternative forms of treatment, coatings with properties favorable for orthopedic, antimicrobial, and electrostimulation applications are growing in implementation in the biomedical field. High throughput processes are critical to meet this demand, therefore ambient or low temperature deposition is nearly essential for synthesis. However, process-induced substrate temperature increases can result in undesirable changes to the structure and properties of the coating materials impacting interpretation of the results. These changes can be partly understood by investigating the changes in the ordering of the crystal structure of coatings. In this presentation, we explore the use of HTXRD to investigate silver oxide coatings that can be used for bactericidal applications and palladium oxide coatings that could be used for neurostimulation applications. In the bactericidal coatings of silver oxide, HTXRD uncovers compelling evidence that by modification of the deposition conditions, specifically working pressure, single phase silver (I) oxide (Ag₂O) and silver (II) oxide (AgO) can be synthesized. It also demonstrates that single phase Ag₂O can be isolated in multiphase materials by thermal decomposition. In the case of PdO, it is shown that the deposition parameters that lead to the highest electrochemically performing materials are those that result in materials in an unstable equilibrium with large strain. HTXRD measurements demonstrate that the strain is relieved at higher temperatures and the coating restores to a more stable but lower performing configuration. The presentation will highlight important experimental aspects of the HTXRD measurements and propose other systems that may benefit from such measurements.