Tribological properties and thermal stability of hydrogenated, silicon/nitrogen-coincorporated diamond-like carbon films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

We have deposited hydrogenated, silicon/nitrogen-incorporated diamond-like carbon (Si–N-DLC) films by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition using hexamethyldisilazane [((CH3)3Si)2NH; HMDS] as the Si and N source, and compared the tribological performance and thermal stability of the Si–N-DLC films with those of hydrogenated, Si-incorporated DLC (Si-DLC) films prepared using dimethylsilane [SiH2(CH3)2] as the Si source. The deposited films were annealed at 723–873 K in air atmosphere. The friction coefficients of hydrogenated DLC films after annealing significantly increased at the initial stages of friction tests. On the other hand, the friction coefficients of the Si–N-DLC films deposited at an HMDS flow ratio [HMDS/(HMDS+CH4)] of 2.27% remained low after the annealing even at 873 K. We found that the wear rate of the Si–N-DLC film deposited at 2.27% and −1000 V remained almost unchanged after the annealing at 873 K, whereas that of the Si-DLC film with a similar Si fraction deposited at −1000 V significantly increased after the annealing at 773 K.

Optimization of Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Process Parameters for Hardness improvement of Diamond Like Carbon Coatings

“…DLC is basically a hybrid form of carbon which holds both graphite like sp2 bond and diamond like sp3 bonds [2]. Apart from its unique structures DLC coatings possess superb tribological, optical, mechanical and electronic properties which led them significant industrial application [3]. As DLC possess the mixture of sp2 and sp3 bonds, it has the properties of both graphite and diamond [4].…”

Polycrystalline Diamond Characterisations for High End Technologies

“…So it is necessary for the CVD grown diamond to be well characterised for the wear and friction applications [30][31][32][33][34]. Thermal stability has been studied so far by many authors [35][36][37] but it lacks proper assessment of oxidation temperature [38][39][40] since only standard furnaces have been used so far. Here, thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) techniques have been used for the first time ever to pinpoint the augmentation of oxidation.…”