Silva F J G, Casais R C B, Martinho R P, Baptista A P M
ISEP-Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Rua Dr António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal.
J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2012 Dec;12(12):9187-94. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2012.6759.
Titanium Diboride (TiB2) presents high mechanical and physical properties. Some wear studies were also carried out in order to evaluate its tribological properties. One of the most popular wear tests for thin films is the ball-cratering configuration. This work was focused on the study of the tribological properties of TiB2 thin films using micro-abrasion tests and following the BS EN 1071-6: 2007 standard. Due to high hardness usually patented by these films, diamond was selected as abrasive on micro-abrasion tests. Micro-abrasion wear tests were performed under five different durations, using the same normal load, speed rotation and ball. Films were deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) technique using TiB2 targets. TiB2 films were characterized using different methods as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Electron Probe Micro-Analyser (EPMA), Ultra Micro Hardness and Scratch-test Analysis, allowing to confirm that TiB2 presents adequate mechanical and physical properties. Ratio between hardness (coating and abrasive particles), wear resistance and wear coefficient were studied, showing that TiB2 films shows excellent properties for tribological applications.
二硼化钛（TiB₂）具有较高的机械性能和物理性能。为了评估其摩擦学性能，还开展了一些磨损研究。薄膜最常用的磨损测试之一是球坑配置测试。这项工作重点是使用微磨损测试并遵循BS EN 1071-6: 2007标准来研究TiB₂薄膜的摩擦学性能。由于这些薄膜通常具有较高的硬度，因此在微磨损测试中选择金刚石作为磨料。在相同的法向载荷、转速和球的条件下，进行了五种不同持续时间的微磨损试验。薄膜采用不平衡磁控溅射物理气相沉积（PVD）技术，使用TiB₂靶材沉积而成。采用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、能量色散X射线光谱仪（EDS）、原子力显微镜（AFM）、X射线衍射（XRD）、电子探针微分析仪（EPMA）、超微硬度和划痕测试分析等不同方法对TiB₂薄膜进行了表征，证实TiB₂具有良好的机械性能和物理性能。研究了硬度（涂层和磨粒）、耐磨性和磨损系数之间的比率，结果表明TiB₂薄膜在摩擦学应用中表现出优异的性能。
