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Boron-Carbon Coatings: Structure, Morphology, and Mechanical Properties

Boron-doped carbon coatings have been produced by a method combining the deposition of a pulsed carbon plasma coating and a boron flow formed as a result of the evaporation of a boron target by pulsed YAG: Nd3+ laser irradiation. Phase, chemical composition, structure, and mechanical properties of composite boron-carbon coatings have been determined. Changes in the coatings’ roughness depending on the boron concentration have been established using atomic force microscopy. It has been shown that the grain size is on the rise with increasing boron concentration. Raman spectroscopy has revealed that at a boron concentration of 43.2 at. %. There is a sharp increase in the ID/IG ratio, which indicates the carbon component’s graphitization. Low ID/IG ratios are observed in the coating at low boron concentrations (no more than 17.4 at. %), suggesting a high content of carbon atoms with sp3 bond hybridization. The coating studies, carried out by X-ray photoelectron microscopy, showed that boron could be in a free state or in the form of carbide or oxide depending on the concentration in the coating. In this case, with an increase in boron concentration, there is a decrease in the concentration of carbon atoms in the state with sp3 bond hybridization, accompanied by an increase in the number of B-C bonds and a reduction in the boron concentration not associated with carbon and oxygen. These coating and chemical composition features determine the boron concentration’s established non-monotonic nature on their microhardness, elastic and mechanical properties.

Keywords: composite carbon coatings, boron-doped, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, microhardness, scratch.