Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1659145 | Surface and Coatings Technology | 2010 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
Nanostructured coatings with variable contents of tungsten carbide (WC) and amorphous carbon (a-C) are prepared by controlling the sputtering power ratio using WC and graphite targets. XRD and TEM/ED analysis shows that increasing the C incorporation, the WC nanocrystalline phases evolve from γ-W2C to β-WC1 â x. Further C enrichment leads to a nanocomposite structure of small WC1 â x crystals dispersed in a-C matrix. The a-C at.% is estimated by XPS analysis and correlated with the observed tribo-mechanical properties. The hardness and friction properties vary from hard/high friction (36-40 GPa; μ = 0.6-0.8) to moderate-hard/low friction (16-20 GPa; μ â¼Â 0.2) coatings depending on the film composition. The transition point is found for a-C content of 10 at.%. This correlates with a change from nanocrystalline WC to nanocomposite WC1 â x/a-C coatings. The overall study will help to understand the previous literature data and will serve as guide for a tailored synthesis of these WC/a-C nanocomposites.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Authors
M.D. Abad, M.A. Muñoz-Márquez, S. El Mrabet, A. Justo, J.C. Sánchez-López,