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The Significantly Enhanced Mechanical and Tribological Performances of the Dual Plasma Nitrided and PVD Coated Ti6Al4V Alloy

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Abstract

In this work, plasma pre-nitriding technique has been employed to enhance the bearing capacity for the TiN coating deposited on Ti6Al4V alloy by magnetron sputtering. The composition, morphology and mechanical property of the as-prepared samples were studied by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Vickers micro-hardness tester and nanoindentater. The tribological properties are investigated using a rotary tribometer under dry sliding and oil lubrication, and the mechanism was also discussed in details. The results show that the plasma nitriding treatment produced a nitrided layer with thickness of 85 μm on the surface of Ti6Al4V alloy, which significantly enhanced the mechanical properties. Therefore, the as-prepared TiN coated sample with plasma pre-nitriding treatment exhibit more excellent mechanical properties possessing the maximum hardness values (26 GPa) and exceptional load bearing capacity (74 N) compared to single TiN-coated Ti6Al4V. Moreover, the tribological properties of sample with plasma pre-nitriding treatment was also significantly improved, which was attributed to the synergistic effect of the superior bearing performance of nitriding layer and the high hardness of TiN coating. Additionally, wear mechanisms were discussed in terms of wear track morphology after sliding test.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by China National Natural Science Foundation (Grants No. 52075521, U2030201 and 51875563), the fund of State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing in NWPU (Grant No. SKLSP202002), the fund of LICP Cooperation Foundation for Young Scholars (Grant No. HZJJ22-03), and the fund of Yantai Zhongke Research Institute of Advanced Materials and Green Chemical Engineering (Grant No. AMGCE010).

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  1. Jiaqiang Yang and Kai Le have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Jiaqiang Yang, Hui Chen, Xiaodong Xie & Yong Luo

  2. State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Kai Le, Xu Zhao, Shusheng Xu & Weiming Liu

  3. Shandong Laborary of Yantai Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing, Yantai, 264000, China

    Shusheng Xu & Weiming Liu

  4. Yantai Zhongke Research Institute of Advanced Materials and Green Chemical Engineering, Yantai, 264000, China

    Shusheng Xu

  5. Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710000, China

    Shusheng Xu

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  1. Jiaqiang Yang
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12541_2023_770_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Additional file 1. The elemental mapping of nitrided Ti6Al4V and the cross-sectional profiles of wear tracks after friction test.

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Yang, J., Le, K., Chen, H. et al. The Significantly Enhanced Mechanical and Tribological Performances of the Dual Plasma Nitrided and PVD Coated Ti6Al4V Alloy. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 24, 607–619 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-023-00770-2

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