Deposition behavior and tribological properties of diamond-like carbon coatings on stainless steels via chemical vapor deposition

A systematic investigation was carried out to observe the deposition rate of a diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating on two stainless steel substrates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The objective of this research is to study the deposition behavior of the DLC coating and its tribological properties in different combinations of methane (CH₄) and nitrogen, which were used as precursor gases. The results reveal that the deposition rate increases with increasing CH₄ content up to 50vol%. The hardness of the DLC-deposited layer also increases while the friction coefficient decreases with increasing CH₄ gas content up to 50% in the precursor gas mixture.