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Evaluation of titanium carbide thin film coatings on WC‐Co following surface microstructure treatments
Author(s) -
Tanaka C.,
Saito T.,
Okamoto N.,
Suzuki S.,
Kitajima A.,
Higuchi K.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
materials and corrosion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.487
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1521-4176
pISSN - 0947-5117
DOI - 10.1002/maco.201609244
Subject(s) - aqua regia , materials science , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , microstructure , titanium , substrate (aquarium) , titanium carbide , carbide , thin film , metallurgy , surface roughness , coating , composite material , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemical engineering , metal , chemistry , nanotechnology , chromatography , oceanography , geology , engineering
The effects of acid or radio‐frequency (RF) CF 4 plasma pre‐treatments before a sputtered titanium carbide (TiC) hard coating thin film were investigated to increase the adhesion strength of TiC on WC‐16wt%Co substrate. The arithmetic average roughness (Ra) was 182.5 nm after a 5‐min aqua regia treatment at 60 °C and 247.8 nm after 30 min of RF CF 4 plasma at a substrate temperature of 500 °C. Chemically bonded cobalt disappeared from the WC‐Co substrate surface on treatment with aqua regia for 5 min based on X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The TiC thin film on substrate with Ra = 150.3 nm after CF 4 plasma treatment at 300 °C for 30 min did not delaminate at up to 30 N, in contrast, the substrate with Ra = 182.5 nm after aqua regia treatment at 60 °C for 5 min underwent delamination at below 30 N. The adhesion strength was maximal, with a surface roughness of Ra ≈ 150 nm, with CF 4 and aqua regia treatments.