| AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Tribology Focus Topic | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session TR+SE-WeA |
| Session: | Advances in Surface Engineering for Friction and Wear Control |
| Presenter: | B. Zhao, Northwestern University |
| Authors: | B. Zhao, Northwestern University Y.W. Chung, Northwestern University |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Hydrogenated amorphous carbon films (CHx) are known to attain ultra-low friction performance only in dry environments. Our work demonstrated that sulfur doping of hydrogenated carbon films (CHx+S) results in ultra-low friction performance in both dry and humid environments. However, these films have a hardness of 7 - 10 GPa and an elastic modulus around 80 GPa, which are too low for some high stress applications. Formation of nanostructured coatings is known to improve hardness. With the aim to produce hard, low-friction coatings, we synthesized nanostructured films of CHx (or CHx+S) and titanium diboride using dual-target magnetron sputtering. Titanium diboride deposited by this method had a hardness >30 GPa. This paper will discuss the film structure as well as tribological and mechanical properties. Nanolayered films with a majority titanium diboride composition showed hardness improvement around rule-of-mixtures values with favorable low friction performance in humid air.