Hard nanostructured protective coatings with smart stress design

坚硬的纳米结构保护涂层HNPC提供了增强的摩擦学性能，这与它们的高硬度、高磨损、耐划伤、耐磨损和耐侵蚀性以及低滑动磨损有关，通常还结合了其他功能特性，如耐腐蚀、高温稳定性、可控热导率、生物相容性、防污性能等。它们是包括航空航天、汽车、制造业、生物医学、林业、能源控制等广泛应用领域的重要组成部分，它们在全球范围内对经济、环境和能源产生了重大影响。然而，由于涂层中的高应力，hnpc的应用往往受到限制。了解应力的来源和控制应力水平对于薄膜和涂层系统在各种应用中的性能和可靠性至关重要。

Hard nanostructured protective coatings, HNPC, provide enhanced tribological properties related to their high hardness, high wear-, scratch-, abrasion- and erosion-resistance, and low sliding wear, frequently combined with other functional characteristics such as corrosion resistance, high temperature stability, controlled thermal conductivity, biocompatibility, antifouling behaviour, and others. They are essential part of a wide range of application areas including aerospace, automobile, manufacturing, biomedical, forestry, energy control and others, and they represent a significant economic, environmental and energy impact worldwide. However, the application of HNPCs is often limited due to high stresses in the coatings. Understanding the origins of stress and controlling the stress level is of key importance for the performance and reliability of thin film and coating systems in various applications. The proposed research program of the present Discovery Grant, application aims at performing cutting-edge studies using a holistic approach, namely to control the stress evolution in hard protective coatings by selectively adjusting the energetics of plasma-surface interactions during the film growth by pulse management in low pressure plasma based techniques PVD and PECVD deposition methods. This will then allow one to implement the stress characteristics, in smart and predictive way in the design of HNPC systems giving rise to their significantly improved tribomechanical performance the HNPC acceptance, and thus contribute to sustainable development.