“…In recent years, transitionmetal diborides (TMB 2 ), such as TiB 2 , CrB 2 , and WB 2 , have attracted growing attention for hard coatings because of their excellent properties [1,2,3,4,5]. In the TMB 2 systems, AlB 2 -type WB 2 coating has widely followed with interest due to its high hardness (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45), high melting point (2560 °C), and good wear resistance, which makes it an excellent candidate as a protective coating [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. However, the low toughness of AlB 2 -type WB 2 coating and the poor adhesive strength induced by the huge difference in the hardness and thermal expansion coefficient between the coating and substrate, such as cemented carbide, limit its further application in industry.…”