Anti-sticking Properties of PVD CrWN_x, CrO_x and ZrO_x Coatings on Medical Electrode Application

摘要

The side effect of electrosurgery includes tissue charring, smoke generation and the adhesion of tissue to electrodes. These effects prolong surgery and interfere with effective coagulation. In this paper, CrWN_x, CrO_x and ZrO_x coating were prepared by an unbalanced magnetron sputtering. The microstructure of films was characterized using XRD, XPS, TEM and AFM. The hydrophobicity and surface energy of coatings were calculated by contact angle measurement and Wu harmonic mean approach. Anti-sticking in vitro test was performed by monopolar electrosurgery using pork liver tissue. The hardness of CrWN_x, ZrO_x and CrO_x coatings were 44 GPa, 26.3 GPa and 20.7 GPa, respectively. The CrO_x coating had the lowest surface energy 33.5 mN/m and the highest contact angle of water as high as 103°. The high surface O-H bonds density of CrO_x coating and N-H bonds density of CrWN_x coating could explain about their lower polar component of surface energy. All the three PVD coatings remarkably reduced the quantity of tissue adhesion on the electrode from about 2 times (ZrO_x and CrWN_x coatings) to 4.88 times (CrO_x coating) than uncoated SUS304 electrode.