Abstract
The films deposited at low temperature (LT-films) have increasingly attracted theoretical and technical interests since such films exhibit obvious difference in structure and performances compared to those deposited at room temperature. Studies on the tribological properties of LT-films are rarely reported in available literatures. In this paper, the structure, morphology and tribological properties of Ag films, deposited at LT (166 K) under various Ar pressures on AISI 440C steel substrates by arc ion plating (AIP), are studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and a vacuum ball-on-disk tribometer, and compared with the Ag films deposited at RT (300 K). XRD results show that (200) preferred orientation of the films is promoted at LT and low Ar pressure. The Crystallite sizes are 70 nm–80 nm for LT-Ag films deposited at 0.2 Pa and 0.8 Pa and larger than 100 nm for LT-Ag films deposited at 0.4 Pa and 0.6 Pa, while they are 55 nm–60 nm for RT-Ag films deposited at 0.2 Pa–0.6 Pa and 37 nm for RT-Ag films deposited at 0.8 Pa. The surfaces of LT-Ag films are fibre-like at 0.6 Pa and 0.8 Pa, terrace-like at 0.4 Pa, and sphere-like at 0.2 Pa, while the surfaces of RT-Ag films are composed of sphere-like grains separated by voids. Wear tests reveal that, due to the compact microstructure LT-Ag films have better wear resistances than RT-Ag film. These results indicate that the microstructure and wear resistance of Ag films deposited by AIP can be improved by low temperature deposition.
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This project is supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Project, Grant No.2007CB607601), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50301015)
HU Ming, born in 1975, is currently an associate professor and PhD candidate at State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He received his bachelor degree from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, in 2007. His research interests include phsical vapour depositing film materials and tribology.
GAO Xiaoming, born in 1978, is currently a research associate at State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He received his PhD degree from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, China, in 2011. His study focuses on phsical vapour depositing film materials.
SUN Jiayi, born in 1971, is currently a professor at State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He got his PhD degree from Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, in 2001. His research interests include solid lubrication materials and tribology.
WENG Lijun, born in 1966, is currently a professor at State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He received his PhD degree from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China in 2007. His research interests mainly focus on physical vapor depositing coatings and their tribology.
ZHOU Feng, born in 1976, is currently a professor at State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He received his PhD degree from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, in 2004. His research interests include surfaces/interfaces of soft matters, functional coatings with extreme wetting and tunable adhesion, engineering coatings for oil seal, drag-reduction and antibiofouling, biolubrication etc.
LIU Weimin, born in 1962, is currently a professor at State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He received his PhD degree from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, in 1990. His research interests include space lubrication and high performance lubricants.
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Hu, M., Gao, X., Sun, J. et al. Influence of deposition temperature and pressure on microstructure and tribological properties of arc ion plated Ag films. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 25, 838–844 (2012). https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2012.04.838
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2012.04.838