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Transmission electron microscopy microstructural characterization of Ti–Si–C–N coatings

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Abstract

A new type of Ti–Si–C–N coatings deposited on high-speed steel substrate by means of pulsed direct current (dc) plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition was investigated. The as-deposited coatings were characterized systematically by using energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and microhardness with particular attention paid to the microstructure of the coatings. It has been shown that C content has a profound effect on the microstructure and hardness of coatings. TEM and XRD analyses revealed that these coatings consist of the dominate Ti(C, N) with a silicide (TiSi2, Si3N4, or SiC, depending on the C content in the coatings). The crystallite sizes are in the range of 8–35 nm, which decrease with increasing C content. The Ti–Si–C–N coatings with high C content (25.2–38.6 at.%) possess superhardness (41–48 GPa). This can be attributed to the grain refinement/grain boundary hardening and dispersion hardening of the hard, nanosized crystalline Si3N4 or SiC formed in the deposition.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the National Science Foundation of China (No. 50671079), the International Key Joint Project of National Science Foundation of China (50420130033), National Key Basic Research Program of China (2004CB619302), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China (NCET-04-0934), Doctorate Foundation of Xi’an Jiaotong University (X020-082062), and Research Program fellowship of Xi’an Jiaotong University.

%One of the authors (Yan Guo) is grateful to assistance of staff and students in the Surface Engineering Group, Department of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Surface Engineering Research & Development Centre, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China

    Yan Guo, Shengli Ma, Kewei Xu & Tom Bell

  2. Department of Metallurgy and Materials, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom

    Tom Bell, Xiaoying Li & Hanshan Dong

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  1. Yan Guo
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  2. Shengli Ma
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Correspondence to Hanshan Dong.

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Guo, Y., Ma, S., Xu, K. et al. Transmission electron microscopy microstructural characterization of Ti–Si–C–N coatings. Journal of Materials Research 23, 198–203 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2008.0019

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