Abstract
The spontaneously self-organizing multilayered graphite-like carbon (denoted as GLC) /TiC films with various bilayer periods in the range of 13.3–17.5 nm were deposited on silicon and 1Cr18Mn8Ni5N stainless steel substrates using closed field magnetron sputtering deposition facility. The microstructures and chemical compositions of the prepared multilayered films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy respectively. The self-organizing multilayered structures in all of the films consisted of titanium carbide layers and sp2-rich carbon layers periodically alternate arrangement. The TiC contents and bilayer periods of the multilayered films can be controlled by means of adjusting of sputtering current of graphite target. Furthermore, the mechanical and tribological performances of the prepared films were appraised by nano-indentor, scratch measures, and ball-on-plate tribometer respectively. The results indicated that multilayer structure endowed the as-deposited TiC/GLC films outstanding mechanical and tribological properties, especially the multilayer film with 15.9 nm bilayer period deposited at 10 A sputtering current showed the excellent adhesion strength and hardness; Simultaneously it also exhibited the lowest average friction coefficient in the humid environment owing to its high content of sp2 hybrid carbon.
Highlights
Amorphous carbon films that mainly compose of sp2 and sp3 hybrid carbon shows a great prospect in the field of aerospace as the solid lubrication films due to its excellent mechanical and tribological properties [1,2,3]
The graphite-like carbon films (GLC films) with a high content of sp2 carbon exhibited lower friction coefficient, higher wear resistance and hardness compared with other types of amorphous carbon films [4,5,6]
It is indicated that stoichiometric titanium carbides are preferred forming in the films with high carbon content
Summary
Amorphous carbon films that mainly compose of sp and sp hybrid carbon shows a great prospect in the field of aerospace as the solid lubrication films due to its excellent mechanical and tribological properties [1,2,3]. It is definitely worth to tailoring the properties of selforganizing multilayered films by regulating the bilayer periods, which possessed a great significance to the development of self-organized multilayered carbon-based films with outstanding performances. In this present work, the multilayered films composed of TiC layers and GLC layers periodically alternate arrangement was self-organized by a facile closed field magnetron sputtering deposition facility. A series of TiC/GLC multilayer films with different bilayer periods were fabricated by changing the sputtering current of graphite target. No bias voltage was applied on the substrates, the substrate temperature was 80 ◦C approximately and the deposition time was 2 h under all deposition process
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