Tribological performance of Nb-C thin films prepared by DC and HiPIMS

Nanostructured NbC thin films with variable contents of Nb and C were prepared by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering, and for the first time, via high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) searching for an improvement in the tribological properties. X-ray diffraction shows that increasin...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sala, N., Abad, Manuel D., Sánchez-López, J.C., Cruz, M., Caro, J., Colominas, C.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/229596
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/229596
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Physical Vapour Deposition
Sputtering
Nanocomposites
Thin Films
Wear
Tribology
Descripción
Sumario:Nanostructured NbC thin films with variable contents of Nb and C were prepared by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering, and for the first time, via high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) searching for an improvement in the tribological properties. X-ray diffraction shows that increasing the carbon incorporation, the crystalline composition evolves from NbC to NbC phase. Further carbon enrichment leads to a nanocomposite structure formed by small NbC crystals (8–14 nm) dispersed in a-C matrix. The friction coefficient varied from high friction (0.8) to low friction (0.25) and the hardness values between 20 and 11 GPa depending on the film composition. A densification of the coatings by changing the methodology from DC to HiPIMS was not observed.