Flexible protective diamond-like carbon film on rubber

In this paper we report an experimental approach to deposit flexible diamond-like carbon (DLC) films on rubber via self-segmentation. By making use of the substantial thermal mismatch between the DLC film and rubber substrate a dense network of cracks forms in the DLC film, contributing to its flexibility. The size of the micro-segments can be controlled by tuning the substrate temperature variation during deposition by varying the bias voltage.