I-Corps: Super-Hard and Low-Friction Coatings for Automotive Manufacturing

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project stems from developing novel carbon film coatings that provide necessary hardness and other chemical characteristics. Such superior coatings are expected to have a potential market of billions of dollars. In automotive applications, coating the engine surfaces and the piston rings with the high-performance carbon films will improve the fuel efficiency and substantially reduce Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxide emissions to benefit the environment. Broad applications of the low-friction and super-hard carbon coatings on cutting tools, bearings, glass, and electrodes will greatly reduce the manufacturing costs and the consumption of the earth's resources. This I-Corps project aims to determine the commercial viability of a patent-pending magnetically enhanced cathodic arc plasma technology that is capable of coating the inner and outer surfaces of working components, such as engine liners and bearings. This technology overcomes the limitation of line-of-sight in conventional physical vapor depositions. A properly designed magnetic field efficiently confines the arc plasma. A single arc current can reach over 100 Amps to locally vaporize the target materials. The evaporated particles have high kinetic energies, leading to excellent adhesion of the coatings to the substrate surfaces. When a graphite target is used, the energetic carbon species form strong bonds with a combination of multiple extreme properties: 1) a hardness value of over 6000 Vickers (close to diamond) compared with ~200 Vickers of 304 stainless steel; 2) a low friction coefficient of ~0.1, similar to the value of Teflon; and 3) a superior chemical inertness and resistance to corrosion.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.