Structure and Properties of Antifriction Cu, Cu–C, and DLC Coatings

Abstract

Single-component coatings of Cu and C and coatings in the Cu–C system with different carbon contents have been obtained by the magnetron sputtering method. The structure of coatings was investigated by the following techniques: scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive and X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and radio-frequency glow-discharge spectroscopy. The mechanical and tribological properties have been determined using the nanoindentation and testing by the “rod–disk” scheme. It has been established that the introduction of carbon into the composition of copper-based coatings is accompanied by an increase in the density of the structure and by the reduction of the crystallite size from 35 to 21 nm. It has been revealed that the characteristics of the Cu–C coatings exceeded those of the Cu coatings. The Cu‒C coatings obtained using the best regimes had a hardness of more than 1.5 GPa and coefficient of friction ~0.19.