Study on the Structure and Properties of TiCx Film Deposited by Arc Ion Plating

Using a pulsed bias arc ion plating deposition system, TiCx films with different compositions were prepared on the W6Mo5Cr4V2 high-speed steel substrate. The surface morphology and microstructure of the film are analyzed by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy; nanoindentation and friction and wear tests are used to characterize the mechanical properties of the film. The results show that the prepared film is a carbon-rich TiCx film, and the carbon-rich components are all in the form of amorphous carbon. With the increase of the amorphous carbon component, the hardness and elastic modulus of the film gradually decrease, and the highest values obtained are 36 GPa and 381 GPa, respectively, and the friction coefficient of the film is between 0.2 and 0.3.

TiC film is a typical NaCl crystal structure, with high hardness, low friction coefficient, high thermal stability and good corrosion resistance. It has become one of the commonly used wear-resistant protective coating materials in industrial production. In recent years, the process parameters of TiC films have been optimized at home and abroad to improve the hardness, wear resistance and bonding strength of the film. In the process of preparing TiC film, when the carbon content is high, the deviation from the ideal stoichiometric ratio will form a carbon-rich TiCx film. The excess carbon mainly exists in the form of amorphous carbon, which has an important impact on the structure and performance of the film. AAVoevodin et al. proposed a super-tough nanocomposite film for the Ti-C binary system, and found that the nano-scale TiC grains are dispersed and distributed in an amorphous carbon matrix with a volume fraction of about 30% to form a nanocomposite structure film. The hardness and wear resistance. At the same time, it was also found in the doping research of diamond-like carbon films that TiC nanocrystals formed by doping Ti into the DLC film play a role in strengthening the DLC film. Therefore, it is necessary to study the structure and properties of TiCx films with different compositions.

The current methods for preparing TiCx films mainly include magnetron sputtering, arc ion plating, chemical vapor deposition, and pulsed laser deposition. Among them, when preparing TiCx films by arc ion plating, C2H2, CH4 and other gases are mostly used as carbon source materials, but the process control and repeatability are poor, and the structure of the films prepared under different source gas conditions is obviously different, resulting in the Performance changes. If a graphite target is used, by precisely controlling the arc target current, the adverse effects caused by the gas reaction can be avoided. In this paper, the pulsed bias arc ion plating technology is used to change the separated target arc current to obtain TiCx films with different compositions, and the effect of different carbon content on the film structure and performance is studied.

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The experiment adopts the self-developed MMLab-Arc-II enhanced magnetic filter pulse bias arc ion plating equipment, and its structure is as shown.

Study on the Structure and Properties of TiCx Film Deposited by Arc Ion Plating

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Straight tube reinforced magnetic filter system can effectively filter large particles and improve the surface quality of the film. The deposition chamber is a cylindrical cavity placed horizontally, two oppositely distributed arc targets are located at both ends of the cavity, and a high-purity graphite target and a pure Ti target are respectively installed. The base material is a Φ20mm×3mm high-speed steel W6Mo5Cr4V2 wafer. After the sample is ground and polished, it is placed in acetone and ethanol for ultrasonic cleaning for 30 minutes, and then dried and placed in a vacuum chamber. First, mechanical pumps, roots pumps and molecular pumps are used to pump the vacuum chamber. When the background vacuum is lower than 5×10-3 Pa, argon gas is introduced to trigger glow discharge under the action of high pulse bias. All the substrates were cleaned with argon ion glow for 10 minutes to remove the passivation film and other impurities on the substrate surface. In the film preparation process, argon gas is introduced, the deposition pressure is maintained at 0.5 Pa, the cathode target is ignited by high-voltage pulse to form plasma, and then under the action of the negative bias of the substrate, it is accelerated to the substrate surface and finally forms a film layer. In order to improve the bonding strength between the film and the substrate, first deposit a Ti transition layer for 10 minutes, then keep the graphite target arc current constant, and change the metal titanium target arc current to prepare TiCx films with different compositions. The deposition time is 60 minutes. The specific deposition parameters are shown in the table. 1 shown.

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Use Bruker-D8 multifunctional thin film X-ray diffractometer (XRD) to analyze the phase of the film, the mode used is grazing incidence, the incident angle is 1°; VG ESCALAB MK2 X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) instrument is used to analyze the film Element content and chemical bond structure, using a monochromatic Al target (1486.6eV); using Invia Raman spectrometer for Raman spectroscopy, the laser is a He-Ne gas laser, the power is 35mW, and the laser wavelength is 632.8nm. Use Nano indenter XP type nanoindenter to measure the hardness and elastic modulus of the film, the instrument adopts continuous stiffness measurement method, choose Berkovich diamond indenter; UMT-2 type multifunctional micro friction and wear tester is used to characterize the tribological properties of the film , Adopt reciprocating friction mode, friction pair is GCr15 steel ball of Φ3.3mm, loading load is 1N, sliding time is 5min.

Carbon-rich TiCx films with different compositions were successfully prepared on high-speed steel substrates using pulsed bias arc ion plating deposition system. The experimental results show that the carbon content of the films has an important influence on the structure and properties of the films. As the carbon content increases, the crystallinity of the TiCx film gradually decreases, while the hardness and elastic modulus of the film gradually decrease. The coefficient of friction of the film is between 0.2 and 0.3.

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Founded in 2015,Zunhua Baorui Titanium Equipment Co.,Ltd. is a manufacturer specializing in pvd vacuum ion coating equipment. The company’s products mainly include large plate coating machine, large tube collating machine, tool coating machine and LOW-E glass production line. Mr.Wang baijiang ,general manager of the company ,has been engaged in vacuum coating industry for more than 30 years. He continuously improve production technology, improve product performance and devote himself to provide customers with better product experience and higher production efficiency.