Influences of Nitrogen Flow Rate on Microstructure, Mechanical and Tribological Properties of WCN Coatings Deposited by HiPIMS

Tungsten carbide (WC) and Tungsten carbonitride (WCN) coatings are deposited by reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) with various nitrogen gas flow rates. The characteristics of discharge current and plasma optical emission of HiPIMS are recorded by oscilloscope (OSC) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The results exhibit that the peak discharge currents and the intensities of optical emission spectra lines are significantly influenced by the addition of nitrogen. The elemental concentration, microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties in ambient temperature and high temperature of deposited coatings are investigated by a wide variety of techniques such as energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), nano-indentation measurement, scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ball-on-disk tribometer. The results show that WC/WCN coatings with different microstructures, mechanical properties and tribological properties have been produced by controlling the flow rate of N2. Meanwhile, with the N2 flow rate increasing from 0 sccm to 24 sccm, (101) diffraction peak shifts to low angle. Moreover, (102) and (110) peaks’ intensities and the angle of (101) peak of β-W2C phase of the deposited WCN coatings decrease and disappear, and the average grain size decreases from 8.9 nm to 6.4 nm. XPS results show that the intensities of C=N, W–N, W–C–N, and N–O peaks increase while the intensity of C–W peak decreases. The deposited coatings change from slight columnar type to a typically dense and featureless structure, and the surface roughness decreases from Ra 11.6 nm at 0 sccm to Ra 5.7 nm at 24 sccm. The variation of nitrogen flow also plays a role in the mechanical properties of the coatings. It is found that the maximum hardness and elastic modulus of 35.6 GPa and 476.5 GPa appear at 16 sccm N2 flow rate. The results of wear tests demonstrate the addition of nitrogen slightly deteriorates tribological properties at room temperature (25 °C), but can remarkably improve tribological properties at high temperature (400 °C) of WC/WCN coatings deposited with an appropriate flow rate of nitrogen.