Influence of nitrogen pressure on bonding structure and mechanical properties of pulsed laser deposited BCN thin films

Tribological properties of boron carbonitride coatings sliding against different wood (acerbic, beech, and lauan) balls

“…In order to reveal the chemical structures of the BCN coatings, the corresponding XPS spectra are shown in Figure 1. As seen in Figure 1(a), three deconvoluted peaks located at about 284.4–284.7 eV, 285.2–285.7 eV, and 288.4–288.8 eV were detected in C1s spectra, which were assigned to C–C (sp 2 ), 2,7,12 C–N (sp 2 ), 2,5,12 and C–N (sp 3 ), 5,12 respectively. For N1s spectra, two deconvoluted peaks located at 397.7–398.8 eV and 399.5–400.1 eV were attributed to N–B bond 10,13 and N–C bond, 7 respectively.…”

“…The coexistence of B–N, B–C, and N–C bonds in BCN coatings indicated the formation of a ternary BCN hybridization. 2 Furthermore, the apparent changes in intensity and position of shoulder peaks indicated the evolution of bonding structure in the BCN coatings with an increase of bias voltage, which would affect the mechanical properties of the coatings.…”

“…It was reported that carbon and boron nitride could hybridize in sp 2 or sp 3 configuration to form a ternary boron carbonitride (BCN) hybridization. [1][2][3] Among these bonds, the "hard" phases, that is, B-C and sp 3 N-C bonds, were beneficial to improve BCN coatings' hardness, while the "soft" phases, that is, sp 2 B-N and N¼C bonds, helped to improve their toughness.…”

“…It was reported that carbon and boron nitride could hybridize in sp 2 or sp 3 configuration to form a ternary boron carbonitride (BCN) hybridization. [1][2][3] Among these bonds, the "hard" phases, that is, B-C and sp 3 N-C bonds, were beneficial to improve BCN coatings' hardness, while the "soft" phases, that is, sp 2 B-N and N¼C bonds, helped to improve their toughness. 2,3 So, in conclusion, mechanical properties depended on bond type; the mechanical properties of BCN coatings could be tailored by constructing different bonding structures via manipulating the different deposition techniques, such as dual ion beam sputtering, 1 pulsed laser deposition, 2 magnetron sputtering, [3][4][5] and chemical vapored deposition.…”

“…1 –3 Among these bonds, the “hard” phases, that is, B–C and sp 3 N–C bonds, were beneficial to improve BCN coatings’ hardness, while the “soft” phases, that is, sp 2 B–N and N=C bonds, helped to improve their toughness. 2,3 So, in conclusion, mechanical properties depended on bond type; the mechanical properties of BCN coatings could be tailored by constructing different bonding structures via manipulating the different deposition techniques, such as dual ion beam sputtering, 1 pulsed laser deposition, 2 magnetron sputtering, 3 –5 and chemical vapored deposition. 6 For example, BCN coatings deposited by pulsed laser deposition had the maximum hardness of 25.2 GPa at a N 2 pressure of 3.5 Pa due to their high fraction of C–B and sp 3 N–C bonds as well as low fraction of sp 2 h–B–N bond.…”