Comparative Study on Microstructure and Tribological Property of VCN, VCN-Al, and VCN/Al Films

In this paper, VCN film, VCN-Al composite film and VCN/Al multilayer film were prepared by multi-arc ion plating. The microstructure and tribological properties of these films were studied and analyzed in detail. The results show that the VCN, VCN-Al and VCN/Al films are all mainly composed of VCN phase, and Al phase appears in VCN-Al and VCN/Al films as expected. The sp2 C-C and sp3 C-C can be detected in these films, but they play a limited role in the improvement of the tribological property. Owing to the relatively low nano-hardness of metal Al, and a relatively high friction coefficient of formed Al-Oxides (Al2O3), the Al-containing VCN films have poor wear resistance compared to the VCN film. The multilayer structure of VCN/Al film with the lowest nano-hardness improves the wear resistance to some extent, leading to the wear rate being slightly lower than that of VCN-Al film. However, the wear mechanism of VCN, VCN-Al and VCN/Al films can all be considered adhesive wear and oxidative wear.