Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
10668194 Surface and Coatings Technology 2011 8 Pages PDF
Abstract
This paper reviews a series of studies on alloying of sputtered TiC coatings with weak carbide-forming metals, Me, such as Al, Fe, Ni, Pt and Cu. Metastable solid solutions with Me on the Ti sites are easily obtained by magnetron sputtering at low temperatures (< 300 °C). First principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations of such carbides show that a driving force exists to remove carbon from the structure as an alternative and kinetically more favourable route compared to Me precipitation. This leads to a situation where additional control of the phase composition is given by annealing: both direct influence during film growth, as well as through subsequent annealing. Thus, alloying of the nanocomposite with weak carbide-forming metals can be used to tune many mechanical, electric and magnetic properties of a carbide-based nanocomposite film.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Materials Science Nanotechnology
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