An Adherent Nano-superhard TiN Film Synthesized by a Vacuum Cathode Multi-arc Ion-plated System

摘要

An adherent superhard TiN film was deposited on substrate of Cr12Mo4V high-speed steel using a vacuum cathode multi-arc ion-plated system. Microhardness, film-to-substrate adhesion and microstructure of the TiN films were investigated using microhardness tester, scratch tester, X-ray diffractometer (XRD), etc. The results show, the microhardness of the TiN films is in a range 34 GPa～45 GPa, and the superhard one is about twofold that of arc ion-plated TiN film reported in the literature; critical load (Lc) of the film is 56 N. The structure characters of the superhard TiN film are the preferred orientation and preferred growth at (111), can be expressed by POD, and the mean main grain-sizes in nm scale. The average grain sizes of the film are about 12.7 nm for TiN_(111), 19.7 nm for TiN_(200) and 9.6 nm for TiN_(220). Compared with the standard TiN film, the maximum characteristic peak of is moved from the (200) plane at 29of 42.4° for the standard TiN film in the PDF card to the (111) plane at 2θ of 73.7° for the superhard TiN film. In condition of the depositing temperature constant at about 350 °C, the structure can be achieved by jointly adjusting the gas pressures in a range of 1.0x10~(-1) Pa ～ 6.0x10~(-1) Pa and the pulsed bias voltages in a range of-100 V ～ 600 V.