Author(s):
Abreu, C. S. 
; Oliveira, F. J. ; Belmonte, M. ; Fernandes, A. J. S. ; Silva, R. F. ; Gomes, J. R.
Date: 2005
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/6128
Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Subject(s): Wear; Friction; CVD diamond; Grain size
Description
Chemical vapour deposited (CVD) diamond coatings are important for tribological applications due to their unique combination of properties. Previous work demonstrated that silicon nitride (Si3N4) excels as a substrate for diamond coatings due to its low thermal expansion coefficient mismatch relative to diamond films resulting in a significant adhesion improvement. In this study, dense Si3N4 substrates were fabricated by pressureless sintering and diamond coated by microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition (MPCVD). The deposition time varied between 1 and 10 hours in order to investigate the effect of the diamond grain size and film thickness on the tribological behaviour of self-mated CVD diamond coatings on Si3N4. Reciprocating dry sliding ball-on-flat wear tests were performed in air up to 16 hours, at room temperature, with normal applied load ranging from 10 N to 105 N. The stroke and frequency of the sliding motion were kept constant with values of 6 mm and 1 Hz, respectively. Several characterisation techniques (SEM, AFM, micro-Raman) were used to identify the prevailing surface damage mechanisms. After a very short running-in regime, with high friction coefficients, a steady-state regime is reached, characterized by extremely low friction values (f~0.03). A mild wear mode was achieved for the longer runs, with wear coefficient values around 10-8 mm3N-1m-1. The larger grain sized and thicker coatings present smaller compressive residual stresses (below 1 GPa) due to a better in-depth accommodation of the contact pressure. This delays film delamination to much higher applied loads (105 N) than the thinner, small grain sized coatings, grown for 1 hour that fail in sliding under 35 N of normal load.
