Environmental Sustainability of High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering Nitriding Treatment of CoCrMo Alloys for Orthopedic Application: A Life Cycle Assessment Coupled with Critical Raw Material Analysis

Valentina Zin, Stefania Fiameni (), Ali Mohtashamifar, Simone Battiston, Francesco Montagner, Silvia Maria Deambrosis and Maria Losurdo
Additional contact information
Valentina Zin: Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Technologies for Energy—National Research Council of Italy, C.so Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padua, Italy
Stefania Fiameni: Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Technologies for Energy—National Research Council of Italy, C.so Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padua, Italy
Ali Mohtashamifar: Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Technologies for Energy—National Research Council of Italy, C.so Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padua, Italy
Simone Battiston: Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Technologies for Energy—National Research Council of Italy, C.so Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padua, Italy
Francesco Montagner: Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Technologies for Energy—National Research Council of Italy, C.so Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padua, Italy
Silvia Maria Deambrosis: Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Technologies for Energy—National Research Council of Italy, C.so Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padua, Italy
Maria Losurdo: Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Technologies for Energy—National Research Council of Italy, C.so Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padua, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: CoCrMo alloys are interesting materials for implantable devices due to their favorable mechanical properties, high wear resistance, and good biocompatibility with the human body. Recent studies have demonstrated the possibility to further increase their wear resistance with an innovative approach consisting of nitriding treatments by the High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) technique. Given the novelty of this treatment, it is relevant to develop a preliminary sustainability analysis of the processes to highlight the total environmental impact and to evaluate possible strategies to decrease it. Here, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of HiPIMS nitriding treatments of CoCrMo alloys using a tantalum or molybdenum target is presented. The main impact driver in all impact categories was the electrical consumption of the vacuum apparatus and cooling system of HiPIMS instrumentation with a 45–47% and 37–39% contribution for Ta-based, and 39–40% and 41–42% for Mo-based treatments, respectively. Climate Change was found to be the most impacted category, followed by Resource Use both for Mo and Ta nitriding targets. Therefore, some perspectives to enhance the environmental sustainability of the synthesis process have been considered by means of a sensitivity analysis. Moreover, a Critical Raw Material (CRM) assessment is discussed, providing a complete sustainability evaluation of the proposed HiPIMS treatments.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; eco-design; environmental sustainability; critical raw material; plasmo-chemical surface treatments; surface engineering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/12/5629/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/12/5629/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:12:p:5629-:d:1682187

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().