Thermal Stability of WB2 and W-B-N Films Deposited by Magnetron Sputtering

doi:10.1007/s40195-018-0864-8

Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters) ›› 2019, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (1): 136-144.DOI: 10.1007/s40195-018-0864-8

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles

Thermal Stability of WB₂ and W-B-N Films Deposited by Magnetron Sputtering

Yan?Ming Liu¹, Tong Li¹, Feng Liu¹, Zhi-Liang Pei²()

1.College of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China
2.Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

Received:2018-08-30 Revised:2018-11-16 Online:2019-01-10 Published:2019-01-18
Contact: Pei Zhi-Liang
About author:
Author brief introduction:Dao-Kui Xu Professor of IMR, CAS, and “Young Merit Scholar” of Corrosion Center in the Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He achieved Ph.D. degree from IMR, CAS, in 2008, during which he obtained “Chinese Academy of Sciences-BHP Billiton” Scholarship award, “Shi Changxu” Scholarship award and “Zhu-LiYueHua” Excellent Doctorate Student Scholarship of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He worked as a Research Fellow in ARC Center of Excellence, Design of Light Metals, Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Australia (2008.10-2011.10). He published more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers, attended 20 invited lectures and holds seven patents. His papers were cited more than 1200 times. His research interests mainly include: (1) fatigue behavior and fracture toughness of light metals, such as Mg, Al and Ti alloys; (2) effects of alloying, heat treatment and thermomechanical processes on the microstructural evolution and mechanical improvement of light metals; (3) corrosion, stress corrosion cracking and corrosion fatigue behavior of lightweight alloys; and (4) design of new lightweight alloys with a good balance of properties in terms of mechanical property and corrosion resistance.

Abstract

Abstract:

The work is mainly to study the thermal stability including the phase stability, microstructure and tribo-mechanical properties of the AlB₂-type WB₂ and W-B-N (5.6 at.% N) films annealed in vacuum at various temperatures, which are deposited on Si and GY8 substrates by magnetron sputtering. For the WB₂ and W-B-N films deposited on Si wafers, as the annealing temperature increases from 700 to 1000 °C, a-WB (700 °C) and Mo₂B₅-type WB₂ (1000 °C) are successively observed in the AlB₂-type WB₂ films, which show many cracks at the temperature ≥?800 °C resulting in the performance failure; by contrast, only slight α-WB is observed at 1000 °C in the W-B-N films due to the stabilization effect of a-BN phase, and the hardness increases to 34.1 GPa first due to the improved crystallinity and then decreases to 31.5 GPa ascribed to the formation of α-WB. For the WB₂ and the W-B-N films deposited on WC-Co substrates, both the WB₂ and W-B-N films react with the YG8 (WC-Co) substrates leading to the formation of CoWB, CoW₂B₂ and CoW₃B₃ with the annealing temperature increasing to 900 °C; a large number of linear cracks occur on the surface of these two films annealed at ≥?800 °C leading to the film failure; after vacuum annealing at 700 °C, the friction performance of the W-B-N films is higher than that of the deposited W-B-N films, while the wear resistance of the WB₂ films shows a slight decrease compared with that of the deposited WB₂ films.

Key words: AlB₂-type WB₂ films, W-B-N films, Magnetron sputtering, Thermal stability, Mechanical properties

Yan?Ming Liu, Tong Li, Feng Liu, Zhi-Liang Pei. Thermal Stability of WB₂ and W-B-N Films Deposited by Magnetron Sputtering[J]. Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters), 2019, 32(1): 136-144.

Figures/Tables 10

Table 1 Summary of deposition conditions for the optimized WB2 and W-B-N films

Parameters	Values
Substrate temperature (°C)	400
Target-to-substrate distance (mm)	70
Pulsed bias voltage (V)	-?50
Target power (W)	172-176
Working pressure (Pa)	0.5
N₂ partial pressure (Pa)	0 (WB₂), 0.006 (W-B-N)
Deposition time (min)	80

Fig. 1 XRD patterns of the sample films annealed at different temperatures for 2 h, a WB2 films, b W-B-N films with 5.6 at.% nitrogen on Si wafers

Fig. 2 a W-B phase diagram calculated from the Gibbs energy functions [22], b experimental W-B phase diagram [23, 24]

Fig. 3 XPS spectra of W 4f a, B 1s b, N 1s c peaks of the WB2 and W-B-N films annealed at 900 °C

Table 2 Element compositions of the WB2 and W-B-N films deposited on Si wafers before and after vacuum annealing at 900 °C

Element	WB₂ films		W-B-N films
Element	W (at.%)	B (at.%)	W (at.%)	B (at.%)	N (at.%)
As-deposited samples	38.9	61.1	33.7	60.7	5.6
Annealed samples (900 °C)	47.2	52.8	33.5	61.0	5.5

Fig. 4 Surface morphology of a-d WB2 films, e-h W-B-N films deposited on Si wafers annealed at different temperatures

Fig. 5 XRD patterns of a WB2 films, b W-B-N films annealed at 900 °C deposited on YG8 substrates

Fig. 6 Surface morphology of a, b WB2 films, c, d W-B-N films deposited on YG8 substrates annealed at different temperatures

Fig. 7 Hardness and elastic modulus of the W-B-N films deposited on Si wafers annealed at different temperatures

Table 3 Hardness, friction coefficient and wear rate of the WB2 and W-B-N films deposited on YG8 substrates before and after vacuum annealing at 700 °C

	As-deposited films		Annealed films
	WB₂	W-B-N	WB₂	W-B-N
Hardness (GPa)	36.0	32.8	34.7	35.6
Friction coefficient	0.39	0.34	0.41	0.32
Wear rate (10^-7 mm³/mN)	4.05	2.20	6.36	1.7

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Thermal Stability of WB₂ and W-B-N Films Deposited by Magnetron Sputtering

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