On the adhesion and wear resistance of DLC films deposited on nitrile butadiene rubber: A Ti-C interlayer

Y. M. Wu, J. Q. Liu, H. T. Cao, Z. Y. Wu, Q. Wang, Y. P. Ma, H. Jiang, F. Wen*, Y. T. Pei

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)
226 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

To promote the adhesion strength between diamond-like carbon (DLC) films and nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) substrates, titanium-doped carbon (Ti-C) films prepared by dual-target magnetron sputtering under varied substrate bias voltages were used as an interlayer on the rough NBR. The surface topography and structure of Ti-C films were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectra. Raman analysis indicates that the increase of substrate bias voltage leads to an increase of the number or the size of sp2 clusters in the Ti-C interlayer. The adhesion strength and tribological properties of DLC films coated on NBR substrate were scrutinized by a scratch tester and a ball-on-disk tribometer, respectively. It was found that DLC film with a Ti-C interlayer at a certain bias voltage exhibited superior wear resistance with a low coefficient of friction (CoF) during the sliding of 6000 laps. No clear damages in the coatings were observed from the wear tracks. Besides, the scratch test also revealed a reliable adhesion when the interlayer was prepared at −150 V, as confirmed by a scratch crack width of ~50 μm as compared to that of the pure DLC film increasing to ~ 120 μm. Therefore, a Ti-C interlayer could significantly enhance the adhesion and wear resistance of DLC thin films deposited on NBR.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107563
Number of pages11
JournalDiamond and Related Materials
Volume101
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan-2020

Keywords

  • NBR
  • DLC
  • Ti-C interlayer
  • Adhesion
  • Wear resistance
  • CARBON-FILMS
  • TRIBOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
  • MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES
  • BIAS VOLTAGE
  • SCRATCH TEST
  • THIN-FILMS
  • PERFORMANCE
  • COATINGS
  • BEHAVIOR
  • MICROSTRUCTURE

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