Tailored synthesis of nanostructured WC/a-C coatings by dual magnetron sputtering

Nanostructured coatings with variable contents of tungsten carbide (WC) and amorphous carbon (a-C) are prepared by controlling the sputtering power ratio using WC and graphite targets. XRD and TEM/ED analysis shows that increasing the C incorporation, the WC nanocrystalline phases evolve from γ-W2C to β-WC1 − x. Further C enrichment leads to a nanocomposite structure of small WC1 − x crystals dispersed in a-C matrix. The a-C at.% is estimated by XPS analysis and correlated with the observed tribo-mechanical properties. The hardness and friction properties vary from hard/high friction (36–40 GPa; μ = 0.6–0.8) to moderate-hard/low friction (16–20 GPa; μ ∼ 0.2) coatings depending on the film composition. The transition point is found for a-C content of 10 at.%. This correlates with a change from nanocrystalline WC to nanocomposite WC1 − x/a-C coatings. The overall study will help to understand the previous literature data and will serve as guide for a tailored synthesis of these WC/a-C nanocomposites.