Hard and soft multilayered SiCN nanocoatings with high hardness and toughness

Alternate hard and soft layers increase deformation accommodation as thin hard layers slide relative to each other due to shear deformation of low modulus layers. However, the processing of such multilayers is challenging. In the present paper the alternating soft and hard multilayered SiCN coating deposited by magnetron sputtering has been studied and presented. A hardness and modulus of 37 GPa and 317 GPa with elastic recovery of 62% are achieved by alternate hard and soft layer of Si-C-N by magnetron sputtering. The trilayer films sustained even 2000 gf under indentation without failure though substrate plastically deformed. The fracture toughness value K-IC was measured to be 9.5-10 MPa m(1/2), significantly higher than many reported hard coatings

Deposition of Multilayered SI-C-N Nanocomposite Coatings from Single Target by Magnetron Sputtering for Engineering Applications

Intense theoretical and experimental interests have been focused on the Ternary nanocomposite Si-C-N ceramic coatings which have shown excellent physical properties, such as high hardness, oxidation resistance and high thermal diffusivity. Mooloithic coatings of transition metal carbides/ nitrides and oxides are mostly used as hard protective coatings. But conventional hard ceramic coatings like SiC, Si3N4, TiC, TiN, cBN diamond coatings fail to provide the optimum properties and at the same time are expensive. Hard coatings of new compositions are always in demand if they could provide high performance and at the same time are less expensive than the existing. The new material is also required to be tougher. The relationship between hardness and wear has caused the scientific and engineering community to pursue the development of increasingly harder coatings but having reasonable toughness

Hard and Soft Multilayered SiCN Nanocoatings with High Hardness and Toughness

Alternate hard and soft layers increase deformation accommodation as thin hard layers slide relative to each other due to shear deformation of low modulus layers. However, the processing of such multilayers is challenging. In the present paper the alternating soft and hard multilayered SiCN coating deposited by magnetron sputtering has been studied and presented. A hardness and modulus of 37 GPa and 317 GPa with elastic recovery of 62% are achieved by alternate hard and soft layer of Si–C–N by magnetron sputtering. The trilayer films sustained even 2000 gf under indentation without failure though substrate plastically deformed. The fracture toughness value KIC was measured to be 9.5–10 MPa m1/2, significantly higher than many reported hard coatings