Tribological properties of carbon layers produced by high temperature chlorination in comparison with DLC coating

Abstract

Tribological properties of carbon layers produced by high temperature chlorination of SiC ceramic and DLC (diamond-like carbon) coatings produced by ion plating method were investigated and compared. Carbon coatings were produced by exposure of ball and disc type SiC in chlorine and hydrogen gas mixtures at 1200°C. After treatment for 10 h, dense carbon films up to 180 μm in thickness were formed. Tribological behavior of newly developed carbon films were compared with that of DLC films. Wear resistance and frictional coefficient of the surface modified ball and disc type SiC were significantly improved compared to an untreated SiC specimen, and also the modified carbon layer had better performance than DLC coatings. Therefore, in this study, the newly developed carbon films have several advantages over existing carbon coatings such as DLC coatings and showed superior tribological performances.