A novel method for enhancing interface strength of TiC coated layer/Ti substrate

•TiC coating on Ti substrate using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and mechanical milling (MM) methods.•Investigating MM-TiC coating mechanism on PLD-TiC coated substrate.•Characterization of TiC coating properties (hardness and scratch hardness).•Investigating effects of milling parameters such as RPM and milling time on the coating characteristics.

In this work, a novel surface coating technique, namely pulsed laser deposition (PLD), along with a high-energy mechanical milling (MM) methods were used to deposit well-bonded TiC coatings on a titanium grade (II) substrate. For this reason, TiC particles were coated on titanium plates, with and without PLD layer, using ball milling process at different conditions. The effects of mechanical milling parameters, such as milling time and rotation speed, as well as the effect of PLD have been investigated. The microstructure of coated samples was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Chemical composition was analyzed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Microhardness and scratch tests were carried out to examine the mechanical and adhesion properties of the coatings, respectively. The coated surface SEM images showed that the dense TiC coating with strong bonding to the substrate could be achieved by using a combination of mechanical milling (MM) and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) techniques. In addition, a possible mechanism was proposed for the formation of TiC coatings during mechanical milling on the PLD-TiC coated substrate. Finally, it was observed that combination of PLD and MM methods (PLD + MM) can produce well-bonded coatings with extraordinary properties, compared to just mechanical milling method.

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