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2024 (English)In: Surface & Coatings Technology, ISSN 0257-8972, E-ISSN 1879-3347, Vol. 477, article id 130326Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The combination of strength and toughness is a major driving force for alloy design of protective coatings, and nanocrystalline tungsten (W)-alloys have shown to be promising candidates for combining strength and toughness. Here we investigate the elemental distribution and the fracture toughness of carbon (C) alloyed W thin films prepared by non-reactive magnetron sputtering. W:C films with up to ~4 at.% C crystallize in a body-centered-cubic structure with a strong 〈hh0〉texture, and no additional carbide phases are observed in the diffraction pattern. Atom probe tomography and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the formation of such a supersaturated solid solution. The pure W film has a hardness ~13 GPa and the W:C films exhibit a peak hardness of ~24 GPa. In-situ micromechanical cantilever bending tests show that the fracture toughness decreases from ~4.5 MPa·m1/2 for the W film to ~3.1 MPa·m1/2 for W:C films. The results show that C can significantly enhance the hardness of W thin films while retaining a high fracture toughness.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2024
Keywords
PVD, Fracture toughness, Atom probe tomography, XPS, Tungsten
National Category
Inorganic Chemistry
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-521828 (URN)10.1016/j.surfcoat.2023.130326 (DOI)001149676000001 ()
Funder
Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, RMA15-0048
2024-01-292024-01-292024-02-15Bibliographically approved