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Corrosion and Wear Behaviors of Cr-Doped Diamond-Like Carbon Coatings

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Abstract

A combination of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and magnetron sputtering techniques has been employed to deposit chromium-doped diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings on stainless steel, silicon and glass substrates. The concentrations of Cr in the coatings are varied by changing the parameters of the bipolar pulsed power supply and the argon/acetylene gas composition. The coatings have been studied for composition, morphology, surface nature, nanohardness, corrosion resistance and wear resistance properties. The changes in I D /I G ratio with Cr concentrations have been obtained from Raman spectroscopy studies. Ratio decreases with an increase in Cr concentration, and it has been found to increase at higher Cr concentration, indicating the disorder in the coating. Carbide is formed in Cr-doped DLC coatings as observed from XPS studies. There is a decrease in sp 3/sp 2 ratios with an increase in Cr concentration, and it increases again at higher Cr concentration. Nanohardness studies show no clear dependence of hardness on Cr concentration. DLC coatings with lower Cr contents have demonstrated better corrosion resistance with better passive behavior in 3.5% NaCl solution, and corrosion potential is observed to move toward nobler (more positive) values. A low coefficient of friction (0.15) at different loads is observed from reciprocating wear studies. Lower wear volume is found at all loads on the Cr-doped DLC coatings. Wear mechanism changes from abrasive wear on the substrate to adhesive wear on the coating.

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Acknowledgments

The work was carried out under the CSIR network Project ESC-01-01. The authors would like to thank the Director, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru, for his support and permission to publish the work. The authors would like to thank Mr. Siju John, Mr. N. T. Manikandanath and Mr. Muniprakash for FESEM, Raman spectroscopy and wear studies, respectively.

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  1. Surface Engineering Division, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru, 560017, India

    S. Viswanathan, L. Mohan, Parthasarathi Bera, V. Praveen Kumar, Harish C. Barshilia & C. Anandan

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Viswanathan, S., Mohan, L., Bera, P. et al. Corrosion and Wear Behaviors of Cr-Doped Diamond-Like Carbon Coatings. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 26, 3633–3647 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-017-2783-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-017-2783-7

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