A preliminary wear studies of isolated carbon particles embedded diamond-like carbon coatings

This article reports the preliminary wear studies of isolated carbon particles embedded amorphous diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings. The isolated carbon particles are first created on top of DLC surface by plasma quenching. After repeatability, the particles are created simultaneous to DLC deposition and embedded in DLC at a controlled depth. The effects of embedded particles on DLC properties are analyzed by change in atomic structure, hardness, Young's modulus, friction coefficient, wear volume, and wear rate. It is observed that, a small amount of embedded particles increases the hardness by ~18% and reduces the wear volume by a factor of 3. Whereas, the friction coefficient increases by ~20% and hardness reduces around ~12% by embedding a large amount of carbon particles.