Study on Nano-Crystallization Mechanism and Tribological Performance of Amorphous Carbon-Based Coatings
Dan DONG,Bailing JIANG(),Meng GUO,Chao YANG
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, China
Cite this article:
Dan DONG,Bailing JIANG,Meng GUO,Chao YANG. Study on Nano-Crystallization Mechanism and Tribological Performance of Amorphous Carbon-Based Coatings. Acta Metall Sin, 2017, 53(7): 879-887.
Amorphous carbon coatings mainly composed of sp3 and sp2 bonds have a great potential to be widely used in modern industry for their attractive properties, such as high hardness, high wear resistance and low friction coefficient. However, the high internal stress and poor adhesion of amorphous carbon coatings limit the range of industrial applications. In order to reduce the internal stress and improve the tribological performance, a series of carbon-based coatings with different atomic fraction of Cr were prepared by magnetron sputtering. The microstructure of coatings was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS and Raman spectra. The mechanical and tribological properties of coatings were analyzed. The results showed that with the increase of atomic fraction of Cr, the carbon-based coatings changed from amorphous structure to nano-crystalline/amorphous composite structure, the ratio of sp2 bond increased and the ratio of sp3 bond decreased gradually. Also, the hardness and the internal stress showed a decreasing trend with the increase of atomic fraction of Cr. In addition, a small amount of Cr doping could effectively reduce the friction coefficient and specific wear rates of coatings. Excessive Cr doping is beneficial to the increase of the ratio of sp2 bond, however, the dispersion distribution of the metal phase leads to the increase of the friction coefficient and specific wear rates, so that the tribological properties were deteriorated.
Fig.1 Surface morphologies of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr
(a) 0 (b) 2.0% (c) 6.5% (d) 17.3% (e) 25.5%
Fig.2 Raman spectra of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr
Fig.3 ID/IG and G-peak position of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr (FWHM(G)—full width at half maximum, Disp(G)—G peak dispersion, ID/IG—intensity ratio of D and G peaks)
Fig.4 C1s spectra of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr
Fig.5 Fitting results of C1s spectra of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr
Fig.6 XRD spectra of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr
Fig.7 HRTEM images and SAED patterns (insets) of working layer in coatings with 2.0%Cr (a) and 25.5%Cr (b)
Fig.8 Mechanical properties of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr
Fig.9 Friction coefficients of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr
Fig.10 Specific wear rates of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr
Fig.11 Wear tracks of coatings with different atomic fractions of Cr
(a) 0 (b) 2.0% (c) 6.5% (d) 17.3% (e) 25.5%
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