Synthesis and characterization of novel nanoengineered superhard coatings

与其他物体移动接触的部件容易磨损。磨损是限制工具、机械零件和生物医学植入物等各种部件寿命的主要失效机制。据估计，每年因佩戴而造成的全球成本为3000亿美元。提高耐磨性是提高各种部件耐用性和性价比的关键。表面涂层是降低零件磨损、提高零件性能的一项重要技术。该研究计划的长期目标是开发技术和设计方法，在具有重要技术意义的材料上设计纳米级的表面涂层，以实现先进机械加工和生物医学应用所需的性能(例如高耐磨性和出色的生物兼容性)。在这项研究提案的过程中，将朝着长期目标取得进展，重点是开发技术和设计方法，以构建纳米级的金刚石基超硬涂层，以应对在机械和生物医学工程中使用金刚石涂层进行耐磨应用的重大挑战。这项研究有望使纳米结构钻石--最好的耐磨材料--能够在钢、聚合物和玻璃等各种具有重要技术意义的材料上进行涂层，从而极大地提高它们的耐磨性。研究成果将在会议上发表，并发表在期刊上，从而转移到行业，引领大大改进的工具、机械部件和生物医学植入物的发展。这将反过来提高制造效率和改善生活质量。另一方面，这项研究将使人们更好地了解与纳米结构材料有关的基本科学问题，并将使新技术能够设计和开发性能大大改善的新型纳米结构材料。

Components in moving contact with other bodies are subject to wear. Wear is the major failure mechanism limiting the lifetime of various components such as tools, machine parts, and biomedical implants. The world-wide cost due to wear is estimated to be $300 billion per year. Increasing wear resistance is the key to improving the durability and cost effectiveness of various components. Surface coating is an important technology for reducing wear and extending performance of components. The long-term goal of the research program is to develop technologies and design methods to engineer surface coatings at the nanometer scale on technologically important materials to achieve desired properties (e.g. high wear resistance and excellent biocompatibility) for advanced machining and biomedical applications. During the course of this research proposal, progress will made towards long-term goal by focusing on the development of technologies and design methods to construct diamond-based superhard coatings at the nanometer scale to address the important challengs of using diamond coatings for wear resistant applications in mechanical and biomedical engineering. The research is expected to enable the coating of nanostructured diamond, the best wear resistant material, on various technologically important materials such as steels, polymers and glass to greatly increase their wear resistance. The research outcomes will be presented in conferences and published in Journals, and thus transferred to the industry, leading the development of much improved tools, machine parts, and biomedical implants. This will, in turn, increase manufacturing efficiency and improve the quality of life. On the other hand, the research will lead to a better understanding of the basic scientific issues related to the nanostructured materials and will enable new technologies for the design and development of novel nanostructured materials with greatly improved properties.