Xiaoqiang Liu

A Near‐Frictionless and Extremely Elastic Hydrogenated Amorphous Carbon Film with Self‐Assembled Dual Nanostructure

A highly crosslinking network combined with a fullerene-like structure is disclosed in a hydrogenated amorphous carbon film. The very soft carbon film exhibits super-low friction and excellent wear resistance even under a Hertzian contact pressure comparable to its hardness under vacuum, which is an extraordinary tribological behavior in the filed of solid lubrication films or coatings.

Properties of TiN/TiCN multilayer films by direct current magnetron sputtering

In this work, a TiN/TiCN multilayer film was deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering. Its thickness was about 9675 nm and the bilayer numbers were 10. The composition, crystalline structure and amorphous carbon (a-C) phase of the film were investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Field emission scanning electron microscopy was employed to observe the inner structure of the film. The TiCN layer exhibited a glass-like structure and the TiN layer presented a columnar structure. The adhesion force between the film and the substrate was 37.8 N determined by scratch tests. The hardness of the uppermost TiCN layer and the total film was 34.22 GPa and 27.22 GPa obtained by nano-indentation tests, respectively. In addition, the TiN/TiCN multilayer thick film showed different types of tribological behaviour against Si3N4 balls and steel balls. The mean coefficient of friction and the wear rate of the film were about 0.14 and 1.15 × 10−6 mm3 N−1 m−1 when the film slid against Si3N4 balls for 1 h.

Preparation of superior lubricious amorphous carbon films co-doped by silicon and aluminum

Silicon (Si) and aluminum (Al) co-doped amorphous carbon films ((Si, Al)–C:H) were deposited on Si and stainless steel substrates by radio frequency (13.56 MHz) magnetron sputtering. The Al and Si were found to jointly regulate the hybridized carbon bonds. Mechanical properties of the films were detected by nano-indention and scratch tests. The nano-indention results revealed that all the samples exhibited good elastic recovery rate, among which the highest one was beyond 84%. Besides co-regulating the hybridizations of carbon, the co-doped Si and Al also had a common regulation on the mechanical and tribological properties. Especially, the film containing 1.6 at. % of Si and 0.9 at. % of Al showed a super-low friction (< 0.01) and a superior wear resistance in ambient air.

Substrate temperature effect on the microstructure and properties of (Si, Al)/a-C:H films prepared through magnetron sputtering deposition

Hydrogenated amorphous carbon films codoped with Si and Al ((Si, Al)/a-C:H) were deposited through radio frequency (RF, 13.56 MHz) magnetron sputtering on Si (100) substrate at different temperatures. The composition and structure of the films were investigated by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), TEM, and Raman spectra, respectively. The substrate temperature effect on microstructure and mechanical and tribological properties of the films was studied. A structural transition of the films from nanoparticle containing to fullerene-like was observed. Correspondingly, the mechanical properties of the films also had obvious transition. The tribological results in ambient air showed that high substrate temperature (>573 K) was disadvantage of wear resistance of the films albeit in favor of formation of ordering carbon clusters. Particularly, the film deposited at temperature of 423 K had an ultralow friction coefficient of about 0.01 and high wear resistance.

Microstructure changes of Ti-Al-C films deposited by filtered cathodic vacuum arc

Nanocomposite Ti-Al-C films were deposited by filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) at different CH4 flows. The deposited films were characterized in terms of elemental and phase compositions, chemical bonds, and texture as a function of CH4 flow rate by XRD, XPS, HRTEM, Raman spectroscopy, and IR spectroscopy. The results show that the TiC grain size decreases from 4.2 to 2.9 nm as the CH4 flow rate increases from 30 to 80 sccm. The analysis of XPS, HRTEM, and Raman spectroscopy shows that the microstructure of deposited films turns from a TiC dominant TiC-C film to a carbon network dominant TiAl-doped a-C film structure as the CH4 flow increases from 30 sccm to 80 sccm. IR spectroscopy shows that most of the hydrogen atoms in the deposited films are bonded to the sp3-hybridized C atoms. All the composition and microstructure change can be explained by considering the plasma conditions and the effect of CH4 flow.