Multi-phase carbonaceous coating with super wear resistance

This paper achieved the pure multi-phase carbonaceous coating matrix by magnetron sputtering technique with pulse bias voltage. Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy analysis demonstrated that three kinds of phases including amorphous, fullerene-like and nano-crystalline carbons were interleaved inside the coating matrix with similar fine size around 6 nm. Most of the ordered fullerene-like and nano-crystalline carbon phases were spherical, while, the disordered amorphous carbon phases distributed among ordered carbon phases with irregular shapes. The synergy of these phases generated rather low friction coefficient 0.05 and extremely low wear rate 8.23 × 10−17m3N−1m−1 under dry-sliding condition in ambient air. The multi-phase carbonaceous coating has great potential to be used as the wear-resistance working surface for mechanical moving components when the liquid lubricant is lacking or forbidden.