Analysis of diamond-like carbon and Ti/MoS2 coatings on Ti–6Al–4V substrates for applicability to turbine engine applications

Ti–6Al–4V substrates have been coated by diamond-like carbon (DLC) films, with no surface pretreatment, and have been coated by Ti/MoS2 films, with a simple surface pre-cleaning. The DLC films were deposited by planar coil r.f. inductively-coupled plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (r.f. ICPECVD); the Ti/MoS2 films were deposited by magnetron sputtering. Both the DLC and Ti/MoS2 films were characterized by pull tests, hardness tests, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and wear tests (pin-on-disk and block-on-ring) to compare their adhesion, hardness, surface topology, and wear properties to plasma-sprayed Cu–Ni–In coating currently used for turbine engine applications. The DLC films were easily characterized by their optical properties because they were highly transparent. We used variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) to characterize thickness and to unequivocally extract real and complex index of refraction, providing a rapid assessment of film quality. Thicker coatings yielded the largest hardness values. The DLC coatings did not require abrasive pretreatment or the formation of bond-layers to ensure good adhesion to the substrate. Simple surface pre-cleaning was also adequate to form well-adhered Ti/MoS2 on Ti–6Al–4V. The results show that the DLC and Ti/MoS2 coatings are both much better fretting- and wear-resistant coatings than plasma-sprayed Cu–Ni–In. Both show excellent adhesion to the substrates, less surface roughness, harder surfaces, and more wear resistance than the Cu–Ni–In films.