AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Tribology Focus Topic Wednesday Sessions
       Session TR+SE-WeA

Paper TR+SE-WeA1
The Deposition of Highly Adherent Fullerene-Like CNX Coatings on Steel Substrates of Complex Geometry

Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 2:00 pm, Room C4

Session: Advances in Surface Engineering for Friction and Wear Control
Presenter: E. Broitman, Linköping University, Sweden & Carnegie Mellon University
Authors: E. Broitman, Linköping University, Sweden & Carnegie Mellon University
S. Schmidt, Linköping University, Sweden
G. Greczynski, Linköping University, Sweden
Zs. Czigany, Research Institute for Technical Physics and Materials Science, Hungary
C. Schiffers, CemeCon AG, Germany
L. Hultman, Linköping University, Sweden
Correspondent: Click to Email
Due to their superior wear resistance, high hardness, and low friction coefficient, carbon nitride (CNx) coatings have been proposed as a candidate to replace diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings. In this study we present the structural, morphological, and adhesive properties of fullerene-like (FL) and amorphous carbon nitride (CNx) coatings synthesized by HIPIMS in an industrial CC-800/9 CemeCon equipment. The coatings were grown on steel substrates of complex geometry (including those with small diameter cavities and holes, and shapes such as bolts, nuts, and screws) to thickness of 2-3 μm. A novel HIPIMS pretreatment with two HIPIMS power supplies was used to increase the adhesion of the coatings: one power supply to establish the discharge and one to produce a pulsed substrate bias. The environment of the created Cr plasma sputter-cleans the surface and forms a Cr-containing gradual interface into the substrate. Subsequently, carbon nitride coatings were prepared by HIPIMS from a high purity graphite target in a N2/Ar discharge at 3 mTorr with the N2 fraction varied from 0 to 1, and the substrate temperature varied from ambient to 300 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning transmission microscopy (STEM), and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) have been used to study the coating and the steel/Cr/CNx interfaces. Identification of coating adhesion failures was done by the Daimler-Benz Rockwell-C adhesion test.