Tribofilm formation from TiC and nanocomposite TiAlC coatings, studied with focused ion beam and transmission electron microscopy

This work demonstrate how two different carbide coatings respond very differently to tribological stress and their very different ability to provide low friction tribofilms in dry sliding against steel. Both coatings, TiC and TiAlC, were deposited by DC-magnetron sputtering, but while the TiC is a thermodynamically stable coating, the TiAlC is made metastable with the addition of Al, and therefore releases carbon upon tribological testing. Thus, the TiAlC coating is shown to be self-lubricating on the atomic scale which makes very low friction achievable. The primary interest in this study is the differences in the tribofilms formed on the steel balls that have been sliding against the two coatings. Cross-section samples for transmission electron microscopy were extracted from the ball tribofilms using a focused ion beam instrument. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman analysis were employed to provide information on the chemical and structural characteristics of the tribofilms. It was shown that tribofilms on steel balls largely inherit the structure and composition that evolve in the coating wear tracks, that the tribofilm microstructure greatly affects the friction level. It was also shown that tribofilm delamination, occurring with tribofilm growth, was initiated in weak ribbon like regions inside the tribofilm.