Abstract
A thick 400-micron amorphous carbon nitride (a-CNX) coating material was synthesized by means of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process. High-power impulse magnetron sputtering technique was used to sputter a pure graphite target plate in reactive argon (Ar), nitrogen (N2) and acetylene (C2H2) environment for depositing the composite coating. Structural and chemical/elemental composition of the a-CNX composite material was investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The root-mean-square surface roughness (Sq) and structure were estimated by atomic force microscopy. Mechanical properties such as hardness and Young’s modulus (Oliver–Pharr method) at room temperature were characterized by Vickers micro-indentation test. Operational temperature test of the deposited a-CNX coating reveals that it can withstand up to 400 °C without cracking. An inverted shaker test, based on central impedance method, was adopted to investigate the dynamic damping property of the coating material, and it was found that the first bending mode damping lossfactor of the reported a-CNX coating is 0.015 ± 0.001 and corresponding loss modulus (Young’s modulus multiplied by lossfactor) is 0.234 ± 0.011 GPa.
Highlights
Carbon, with its different forms and alloys, has significant importance in our modern life due to the fact that graphite can be used in various mechanical applications, and because amorphous carbon films can be used as protective layer in computer hard disk [1]
Higher ionization of carbon appended with low peak power and plateau discharge, the plasma density of the reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) described in this work is low [45]
At this low plasma density of Ar/N2/C2H2 reactive sputtering process, competition between the incoming depositing ion flux to substrate and the surface etching of growing film cannot activate the substrate surface for the growth of densely packed columnar microstructure, which in result may form large fractured columnar structure spreading over the whole thickness of the horizontal layering structure
Summary
With its different forms and alloys, has significant importance in our modern life due to the fact that graphite can be used in various mechanical applications, and because amorphous carbon films can be used as protective layer in computer hard disk [1]. They used almost same process parameters and compared the mechanical properties of the deposited films They found that the film produced by MFMS has the highest hardness (24.6 GPa) and elastic recovery value (90.7%) as well as the film has the highest compressive stress (4.2 GPa), while the film deposited by HiPIMS has the moderate amount of hardness value (14 GPa) and the lowest compressive stress (1.2 GPa). They argued that the high elasticity of the films is originated by sp hybridized bonds which increases with increasing substrate bias voltage
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