Tribological properties of the Ti–Al–N thin films with different components fabricated by double-targeted co-sputtering

Ti–Al–N films with different chemical compositions were deposited on stainless steel by changing the relative substrate position to targets using double-targeted reactive magnetron sputtering technique in the same process. The tribological behavior of the Ti–Al–N films was investigated in the temperature ranging from room temperature to elevated temperature in air without any lubricant on UMT-3 multifunctional friction and wear tribometer. The structure of the as-deposited films and the worn surface after tribometer testing were identified using XRD, EDS and SEM. It was found that the chemical composition of the as-deposited films altered with substrate position from Ti0.82Al0.18N to Ti0.12Al0.88N. XRD results revealed that the sputtered films before heat treatment were amorphous, but different phases such as TiN, AlN and TiAlN were formed after heat treatment of 700 °C × 1 h. Friction and wear tests indicated the films with x = 0.57, 0.65 exhibited the best tribological performance during the Ti1−xAlxN films system because of its hard phase and the formation of transfer films.