Nanocomposite vacuum-Arc TiC/a-C:H coatings prepared using an additional ionization of acetylene

• Published in: Physics of metals and metallography Vol. 115; no. 7; pp. 723 - 729
• Main Authors: Trakhtenberg, I. Sh, Gavrilov, N. V., Emlin, D. R., Plotnikov, S. A., Vladimirov, A. B., Volkova, E. G., Rubshtein, A. P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.07.2014; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acetylene; Chemical properties; Chemistry and Materials Science; Coatings; Coatings industry; Decomposition; Electron beams; Hardness; Ionization; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Nanostructure; Strength and Plasticity; Titanium; Titanium carbide; vacuum-arc deposition; nanostructure; electron beam; ionization of acetylene; nanocrystalline titanium carbide; nanocomposite TiC/a-C:H coatings
• ISSN: 0031-918X; 1555-6190
• DOI: 10.1134/S0031918X14070102

The composition, structure, and properties of TiC/a-C:H coatings obtained by simultaneous vacuum-arc deposition of titanium and carbon in a low-pressure argon-acetylene medium additionally activated by a low-energy (a few hundreds of electron-volts) electron beam. The creation of conditions under which the decomposition of acetylene is provided by the ionization and dissociation of molecules due to electron impacts and by the recharging of molecules through titanium and argon ions with subsequent dissociation should favor the most complete decomposition of acetylene in a wide range of pressures. With increasing acetylene pressure, the structure of the nanocomposite coating changes: the size of TiC crystallites decreases, and the fraction of interfaces (or the fraction of regions with a disordered (amorphous) structure) increases. The application of a bias voltage leads to an increase in the sizes of TiC nanocrystallites. The coatings with a maximum microhardness (∼40 GPa) have been obtained without the action of an electron beam under an acetylene pressure of ∼0.05–0.08 Pa and the atomic ratio Ti: C ∼ 0.9: 1.1 in the coating.