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Failure Behavior of Hydrogenated and Hydrogen Free Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) Films in Water Environment

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Journal of Bio- and Tribo-Corrosion Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Diamond like carbon (DLC) film exhibits typical properties such as high hardness and low coefficient of friction, often used to improve fiction and wear performance. In the application of surface modification of medical implants, it is of great interests to investigate the failure mechanism of DLC in water environment, in order to avoid the early-stage delamination of DLC film in vivo and promote the application of DLC in implanted medical devices. In this work, four kinds of DLC films were prepared by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, plasma immersion ion deposition and filtered cathode vacuum arc methods. The wear and failure behavior of DLC films in air and water environment were investigated by ball-on-disc tribological experiments. The results show the friction coefficient of DLC film with high hydrophilic is sensitive to the water environment. Both the interface corrosion and mechanical property affect the adhesion failure of DLC film in water. Hydrogenated DLC film is vulnerable to water environment because the hydrogenous interface is susceptible to corrosion, however, the low hardness and low modulus can reduce the contact stress, which is help to achieve a longer service life of hydrogenated DLC film in water. Hydrogen free DLC film is less sensitive to water environment compared with the hydrogenated one.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Chongqing Technology Innovation and Application Development Project (cstc2019jscx-fxydX0046), the project of Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau (Grant Nos. cstc2018jcyjAX0492, cstc2018jcyj-yszxX0003), Scientific and Technological Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (Grant Nos. KJ1601104, KJQN202001303), the Foundation of Chongqing University of Art and Sciences (Grant No. R2018SCL29), and the Guangdong Innovative and Entrepreneurial Research Team Program (Grant No. 2016ZT06G025).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, 402160, China

    Tengfei Zhang, Zhaoying Xu, Jinbiao Wang & Weijiu Huang

  2. Centre of Excellence for Advanced Materials, Dongguan, 523808, China

    Tengfei Zhang, Xiaodong Hou & Sanjooram Paddea

  3. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Yongyao Su

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  1. Tengfei Zhang
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Correspondence to Weijiu Huang.

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Zhang, T., Xu, Z., Wang, J. et al. Failure Behavior of Hydrogenated and Hydrogen Free Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) Films in Water Environment. J Bio Tribo Corros 7, 149 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40735-021-00574-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40735-021-00574-9

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