Morphological and compositional investigations of the tribological coatings with quaternary & pentanary composition, obtained from WC, TiB2 and Ti by DC standard & reactive magnetron sputtering

摘要

This work presents the first results of the morphological and compositional investigations for the tribological coatings with monolayer and multilayer-type structure with a complex composition that was not researched yet and that was deposited by standard and reactive DC magnetron sputtering, starting from 3 basic materials: WC, TiB2 and Ti. First sample (1) is a multi-layer with pentanary composition (Ti-W-C-B-N), deposited in one set of three successively layers (TixNy/TixByNz/WxCyNz. The second sample (2) is made of one layer of three compound materials (TixNy+TixByNz+WxCyNz) with pentanary composition by simultaneously magnetron sputtering. The third (3) sample is a monolayer with quaternary composition (Ti-W-C-B), obtained by simultaneously sputtering of three materials (Ti+TiB2+WC). Surface topography, roughness and section analysis of the three coating surface layers are examined by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) method. Composition of the three samples is investigated by the Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS). The AFM characterizations prove that the grain size and the roughness have lower values for the coating un-doped with N-2 than for the coatings deposited with N-2 as reactive gas. All the samples show very fine nanostructure. RBS investigations give the composition of each deposition and prove that all the coatings are non-stoichiometric complex compounds.