Progress report - ESR 12: Mobeen Haneef

date: May 20, 2022

category: News

Interaction between DLC and lubricants to develop recyclable low-formulated oils

In this research work, non-layered DLC-M (M = Ti, Mg) and multi-layered DLC/DLC-M coatings were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering. A chromium-carbon gradient interlayer was deposited prior to the DLC-M coatings to improve their adhesion to the substrates. The deposited DLC coatings were thoroughly characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), x-ray diffraction (XRD) in grazing incidence mode, scratch, and nanoindentation testing. SEM images of surface and cross-section showed that DLC-M coatings had granular surface morphology (typical morphology of DLC coatings) and thicknesses from ≈1.2µm to ≈1.5µm. The titanium and magnesium dopant concentrations varied from 8.2 to 2.7, and 11.0 to 4.3 (at. %), respectively. X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed that the deposited coatings are amorphous. Only diffraction peaks from the chromium interlayer were detected. Hardness testing showed that layered doped DLC/DLC-M coatings have better mechanical properties (average hardness and elastic modulus were recorded as 16 GPa and 172 GPa for DLC-Ti and 10.5GPa and 130 GPa for DLC-Mg, respectively) as compared to non-layered doped DLC coatings. A scratch test was used to evaluate the adhesion of coatings with substrate qualitatively, the layered DLC coatings showed better adhesion as compared to non-layered DLC coatings.

The key academic groups of TRIBOS consortium are leading and world renown in their own field of Tribology and Surface engineering. They are very complementary from point of view of surfaces, lubricants and interfaces, as well as engineering component design. Thus, their involvement in a single programme enables integration of the whole range of tribology sub-areas required for successful application solutions.