Microstructure, Mechanical and Tribological Property of TiAlN/VN Nano-multilayer Films

doi:10.15541/jim20170052

Abstract

Abstract:

A series of TiAlN/VN nano-multilayer films were prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering method. The effects of modulation structure on the microstructural evolution, mechanical and tribological properties were investigated by X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope, high-resolution transmission electron microscope, nano- indention device and high vacuum tribometer. The results show that the structure of TiAlN/VN nano-multilayer films with different modulation periods are all typical columnar crystals. Meanwhile, the insertion of the VN sublayers does not interrupt the columnar crystal growth of TiAlN sublayers. In the TiAlN/VN nano-multilayer films, TiAlN sublayers grow coherently and epitaxially over VN sublayers under the critical modulation period. Correspondingly, the hardness and the modulus of the TiAlN/VN nano-multilayer films increase significantly, and the maximum hardness and elastic modulus of TiAlN (10 nm)/VN (10 nm) nano-multilayer films increase by about 39.3% and 40.9% compared with the TiAlN single film, respectively. The strengthening of the TiAlN/VN nano-multilayer films can be attributed to the coherent interfacial structure. In addition, the friction coefficient of TiAlN single film is about 0.9, while that of TiAlN/VN nano-multilayer films can be decreased significantly and reaches a minimum value of ~0.4 by the periodic insertion of the VN sublayers with lower friction coefficient ~0.3.

Key words: reactive magnetron sputtering, TiAlN/VN nano-multilayer films, tribological properties

CLC Number:

TG174

LI Miao-Lei, WANG En-Qing, YUE Jian-Ling, HUANG Xiao-Zhong. Microstructure, Mechanical and Tribological Property of TiAlN/VN Nano-multilayer Films[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2017, 32(12): 1280-1284.

Figures/Tables 6

Fig. 1 XRD patterns of TiAlN, VN single film and TiAlN/VN nano-multilayer films with different thicknesses

Fig. 2 TEM images of sputtered TiAlN(10 nm)/VN(10 nm) nano-multilayer films(a) BF-TEM and SAD images; (b) HR-TEM image; (c) FFT and IFFT images

Fig. 3 Cross-sectional SEM images of (a) TiAlN(4 nm)/ VN (4 nm) and (b) TiAlN(10nm)/VN(10 nm) nano-multilayer films

Fig. 4 Nanoindentation load-displacement of TiAlN, VN single film and TiAlN/VN multilayer films

Table 1 Hardness and modulus of elasticity of TiAlN, VN single film and TiAlN/VN multilayer films

Sample	Hardness/GPa	E/GPa
TiAlN	27.5	484.9
VN	25.8	567.7
TiAlN(4 nm)/VN(4 nm)	31.2	516.6
TiAlN(10 nm)/VN(10 nm)	38.3	683.1

Fig. 5 Friction coefficient of the TiAlN, VN single film and TiAlN/VN multilayer films

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