Investigation of structure, adhesion strength, wear performance and corrosion behavior of platinum/ruthenium/nitrogen doped diamond-like carbon thin films with respect to film thickness

In this study, the corrosion performance of platinum/ruthenium/nitrogen doped diamond-like carbon (PtRuN-DLC) thin films deposited on p-Si substrates using a DCmagnetron sputtering deposition system in a 0.1M NaCl solution was investigated using potentiodynamic polarization test in terms of film thickness. Theeffect of thefilmthickness on the chemical composition, bonding structure, surfacemorphology, adhesion strength and wear resistance of the PtRuN-DLC films was studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), micro-Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), micro-scratch test and ball-on-disc tribotest, respectively. It was found that the wear resistance of the PtRuN-DLC films apparently increased with increased film thickness though the adhesion strength of the films decreased. The corrosion results revealed that the increased concentration of sp2 bonds in the PtRuN-DLC films with increased film thickness shifted the corrosion potentials of the films to more negative values but the decreased porosity density in the films significantly decreased the corrosion currents of the films. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.