Effects of nanocrystalline silver incorporation on sliding tribological properties of Ag-containing diamond-like carbon films in multi-ion beam assisted deposition

Ag-DLC different films with six Ag contents on AISI 440 steel substrate were deposited with a multi-ion beam assisted deposition, and attempt to correlate the incorporation of silver with the sliding tribological behavior was performed. Results show that: (i) increasing Ag content leading to an upward tendency of Ag of nanocrystallite size; (ii) superior tribological behaviors for the films with Ag content ranging between 4.3 and 10.6 at%; and (iii) the best tribological behaviors for the film of 8.3 at% Ag and 12.9 grain size. It also confirms that the evolution of the tribological properties is closely related to the level of the interaction of incorporated silver in forming sp3 hybridization in the DLC films. These phenomena imply that the energetic particles may induce a balance between the recombination of particles and the change of internal stress in the DLC films.