Cargando…
Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Temperature on Mechanical Durability of Silicon Carbide Thin Films
Amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) films are promising solution for functional coatings intended for harsh environment due to their superior combination of physical and chemical properties and high temperature stability. However, the structural applications are limited by its brittleness. The possibl...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2018
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6041337/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29992984 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-28704-3 |
_version_ | 1783338973217685504 |
---|---|
author | Tomastik, Jan Ctvrtlik, Radim Ingr, Tomas Manak, Jan Opletalova, Ariana |
author_facet | Tomastik, Jan Ctvrtlik, Radim Ingr, Tomas Manak, Jan Opletalova, Ariana |
author_sort | Tomastik, Jan |
collection | PubMed |
description | Amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) films are promising solution for functional coatings intended for harsh environment due to their superior combination of physical and chemical properties and high temperature stability. However, the structural applications are limited by its brittleness. The possible solution may be an introduction of nitrogen atoms into the SiC structure. The effect of structure and composition on tribo-mechanical properties of magnetron-sputtered a-SiC(x)N(y) thin films with various nitrogen content (0–40 at.%) and C/Si close to one deposited on silicon substrates were evaluated before and after exposure to high temperatures up to 1100 °C in air and vacuum. IR transmission spectroscopy revealed formation of multiple C-N bonds for the films with N content higher than 30 at.%. Improvement of the organization in the carbon phase with the increase of nitrogen content in the a-SiCN films was detected by Raman spectroscopy. Nanoindentation and scratch test point out on the beneficial effect of the nitrogen doping on the tribo-mechanical performance of a-SiC(x)N(y) coatings, especially for the annealed coatings. The improved fracture resistance of the SiCN films stems from the formation of triple C≡N bonds for the as deposited films and also by suppression of SiC clusters crystallization by incorporation of nitrogen atoms for annealed films. This together with higher susceptibility to oxidation of a-SiCN films impart them higher scratch and wear resistance in comparison to SiC films before as well as after the thermal exposure. The best tribo-mechanical performance in term of high hardness and sufficient level of ductility were observed for the a-Si(0.32)C(0.32)N(0.36) film. The enhanced performance is preserved after the thermal exposure in air (up to 1100 °C) and vacuum (up to 900 °C) atmosphere. Annealing in oxidizing atmosphere has a beneficial effect in terms of tribological properties. Harder films with lower nitrogen content suffer from higher brittleness. FIB-SEM identified film-confined cracking as the initial failure event in SiC, while it was through-interface cracking for SiCN at higher loads. This points out on the higher fracture resistance of the SiCN films where higher strains are necessary for crack formation |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6041337 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-60413372018-07-13 Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Temperature on Mechanical Durability of Silicon Carbide Thin Films Tomastik, Jan Ctvrtlik, Radim Ingr, Tomas Manak, Jan Opletalova, Ariana Sci Rep Article Amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) films are promising solution for functional coatings intended for harsh environment due to their superior combination of physical and chemical properties and high temperature stability. However, the structural applications are limited by its brittleness. The possible solution may be an introduction of nitrogen atoms into the SiC structure. The effect of structure and composition on tribo-mechanical properties of magnetron-sputtered a-SiC(x)N(y) thin films with various nitrogen content (0–40 at.%) and C/Si close to one deposited on silicon substrates were evaluated before and after exposure to high temperatures up to 1100 °C in air and vacuum. IR transmission spectroscopy revealed formation of multiple C-N bonds for the films with N content higher than 30 at.%. Improvement of the organization in the carbon phase with the increase of nitrogen content in the a-SiCN films was detected by Raman spectroscopy. Nanoindentation and scratch test point out on the beneficial effect of the nitrogen doping on the tribo-mechanical performance of a-SiC(x)N(y) coatings, especially for the annealed coatings. The improved fracture resistance of the SiCN films stems from the formation of triple C≡N bonds for the as deposited films and also by suppression of SiC clusters crystallization by incorporation of nitrogen atoms for annealed films. This together with higher susceptibility to oxidation of a-SiCN films impart them higher scratch and wear resistance in comparison to SiC films before as well as after the thermal exposure. The best tribo-mechanical performance in term of high hardness and sufficient level of ductility were observed for the a-Si(0.32)C(0.32)N(0.36) film. The enhanced performance is preserved after the thermal exposure in air (up to 1100 °C) and vacuum (up to 900 °C) atmosphere. Annealing in oxidizing atmosphere has a beneficial effect in terms of tribological properties. Harder films with lower nitrogen content suffer from higher brittleness. FIB-SEM identified film-confined cracking as the initial failure event in SiC, while it was through-interface cracking for SiCN at higher loads. This points out on the higher fracture resistance of the SiCN films where higher strains are necessary for crack formation Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-07-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6041337/ /pubmed/29992984 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-28704-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Tomastik, Jan Ctvrtlik, Radim Ingr, Tomas Manak, Jan Opletalova, Ariana Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Temperature on Mechanical Durability of Silicon Carbide Thin Films |
title | Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Temperature on Mechanical Durability of Silicon Carbide Thin Films |
title_full | Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Temperature on Mechanical Durability of Silicon Carbide Thin Films |
title_fullStr | Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Temperature on Mechanical Durability of Silicon Carbide Thin Films |
title_full_unstemmed | Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Temperature on Mechanical Durability of Silicon Carbide Thin Films |
title_short | Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Temperature on Mechanical Durability of Silicon Carbide Thin Films |
title_sort | effect of nitrogen doping and temperature on mechanical durability of silicon carbide thin films |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6041337/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29992984 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-28704-3 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT tomastikjan effectofnitrogendopingandtemperatureonmechanicaldurabilityofsiliconcarbidethinfilms AT ctvrtlikradim effectofnitrogendopingandtemperatureonmechanicaldurabilityofsiliconcarbidethinfilms AT ingrtomas effectofnitrogendopingandtemperatureonmechanicaldurabilityofsiliconcarbidethinfilms AT manakjan effectofnitrogendopingandtemperatureonmechanicaldurabilityofsiliconcarbidethinfilms AT opletalovaariana effectofnitrogendopingandtemperatureonmechanicaldurabilityofsiliconcarbidethinfilms |