Tribological properties of the Ti-Al-N thin films with different components fabricated by double-targeted co-sputtering

摘要

Ti-Al-N films with different chemical compositions were deposited on stainless steel by changing the relative substrate position to targets using double-targeted reactive magnetron sputtering technique in the same process. The tribological behavior of the Ti-Al-N films was investigated in the temperature ranging from room temperature to elevated temperature in air without any lubricant on UMT-3 multifunctional friction and wear tribometer. The structure of the as-deposited films and the worn surface after tribometer testing were identified using XRD, EDS and SEM. It was found that the chemical composition of the as-deposited films altered with substrate position from Ti_(0.82)Al_(0.18)N to Ti_(0.12)Al_(0.88)N. XRD results revealed that the sputtered films before heat treatment were amorphous, but different phases such as TiN, AlN and TiAlN were formed after heat treatment of 700℃ × 1 h. Friction and wear tests indicated the films with x = 0.57, 0.65 exhibited the best tribological performance during the Ti_(1-x)Al_xN films system because of its hard phase and the formation of transfer films.