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TiN: The Compound With the Strength of a Superhero
Titanium has become something of a byword for strength in popular culture – it inspired the song ’Titanium’ by David Guetta and, as we all know, Wolverine’s claws were made of fictional adamantium. But there’s a much more practical reason to use this hard brittle metal: titanium nitride, or TiN. This titanium-nitrogen compound is used as a coating on titanium alloy, steel, carbide and aluminum components to harden the surface and improve its wear resistance. It is also applied to firearm and knife blades, bicycle parts and aerospace components to improve their appearance, reduce friction and extend their life.
The compound can be produced in bulk form by packing powdered metallic titanium into the desired shape and igniting it in an atmosphere of pure nitrogen. But it is more commonly fabricated as a thin coating on other materials by heating titanium to a vapour and then mixing it with nitrogen in a vacuum before building it up onto the substrate using a process called physical vapor deposition.
This method can be applied to a wide range of materials and is ideal for coating high-performance ceramics such as alumina or zirconia. It is also used on some titanium alloys to improve their corrosion resistance. TiN is non-toxic and conforms to FDA regulations, so it is frequently used in medical devices such as scalpel blades and orthopedic bone saw blades and as a coating for hip replacement implants. It can also be used as a conductive barrier in microelectronics between the active silicon of a chip and the metal contacts.
