A comparative investigation of mechanical and tribological properties of multilayered CVD-diamond coatings: effect of boron doping

In the present work, smooth boron-doped (BD) and undoped multilayered diamond coating systems (MDCS) with top layer nanocrystallinity were deposited on chemically etched cemented tungsten carbide (WC-6%Co) substrates, using hot filament chemical vapour deposition (HFCVD) technique. Both coatings were accomplished by combining the alternate thin films of microcrystalline diamond (MCD) and nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) with a transition layer (TL) of ~1μm thick, using predetermined process parameters during the deposition process. The effects of boron doping on the residual stresses (σ), hardness (H) and coefficient of friction (COF) of MDCS were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy, Berkovich Nanoindenter and Micro-tribometer, respectively. The comparison has been documented between BD-MDCS with undoped one, under same input operating conditions and within same atmospheric conditions. The frictional characteristics were studied under the application of increasing normal load when sliding a