Evolution of microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties of vanadium carbonitride coatings sputtered at different nitrogen partial pressures

Abstract

Vanadium carbide coatings were deposited by R.F. reactive magnetron sputtering at different nitrogen partial pressures. The structures and the mechanical and tribological behaviour of these coatings were studied. By using a combined approach of EDS and WDS, it has been shown that increasing nitrogen concentration from 0 to 27 at.% led to decrease the carbon content from 48.50 to 30.50 at.%. All coatings exhibited a dominant fcc-VC structure with additional fractions of vanadium nitrides, as determined by XRD. Nanoindentation measurements showed that the highest hardness of 26.1 GPa was obtained for the coating with a (N + C) / (V) ratio equal to 1.44. The transition in brittleness-ductile failure mode was noticed with increasing nitrogen content. This adhesive feature can prevent phase separation and improves the wear resistance of the coatings. Moreover, the nitrogen partial pressure showed a significant influence on the friction coefficient because of film density and residual stress effects.

Relationship between structure, surface topography and tribo-mechanical behavior of Ti-N thin films elaborated at different N2 flow rates

“…The residual stresses generated in the films during the deposition procedure were calculated using the curvature method (Stoney's formula (Eq. 4)) [3]. The substrate-curvature radii before and after film deposition were measured with an optical profilometer (VEECO, Wyko-NT 1100).…”

“…Where E s (181 GPa) and ν s (0.28) are the Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio of an iron substrate, respectively. t s and t f are the thicknesses of the substrate and the deposited film, respectively, while R 0 and R are the curvature radius before and after deposition, respectively [3]. The tribological behavior (friction coefficient) of the films was evaluated by sliding wear tests using a tribometer (CSM Instruments) under a ball-on-disc configuration.…”

“…The protective transition metal nitride coatings are used for cutting tools and wear resistant parts thanks to their high abrasion resistance, thermal stability and corrosion resistance at high temperature [1][2][3]. Among these coatings, titanium nitride has been extensively studied in the last few years because of its special properties.…”

Influence of film thickness and Ar N2 plasma gas on the structure and performance of sputtered vanadium nitride coatings

“…Interestingly, Krause et al have reported the microstructure-property relationship of reactive magnetron sputtered VeN films deposited at different deposition angles [17]. In our recent study, we evaluated the influence of nitrogen partial pressure on the microstructure and mechanical and tribological behavior of V-C-N coatings [18]. Qiu et al have investigated the effect of nitrogen pressure and negative substrate bias on the microstructure and the mechanical performance of VeN films [19].…”

Preparation of wide optical spectrum and high antireflection MgF2 thin film with SF6 as reactive gas

“…Lee etc [15] deposited 30 nm-thick InZnSnO film transistors with RF magnetron sputtering with various oxygen partial pressures, and found that the oxygen partial pressure affected the overall electrical properties of the thin film transistors, which was associated with the change of interface trap density. Zgheib etc [16] deposited vanadium carbide coatings with RF reactive magnetron sputtering at different nitrogen partial pressures. They found that the increase of nitrogen concentration from 0 to 27 at.…”