Compositional, morphological and mechanical investigations of monolayer type coatings obtained by standard and reactive magnetron sputtering from Ti, TiB2 and WC

Abstract The purpose of this work was to study new composite coatings that would have wear resistant properties. The coatings were obtained by standard and reactive simultaneous magnetron sputtering from three targets (Ti, TiB 2 , WC) with or without N 2 as reactive gas. The chemical composition of the coatings was investigated by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, while the morphological features were evaluated by atomic force microscopy. Some of the mechanical properties of the coatings, such as hardness and Young's modulus, were investigated by nanoindentation, while the adherence to the substrate was investigated by scratch tests. The wear resistance and friction coefficients were evaluated using a pin-on-disk tribometer. The films are hard ( H it between 20 and 22 GPa) and show promising results concerning their wear resistance, especially if the films would be paired with an appropriate substrate material.