Chapters authored
DLC Layers Created Using CVD Techniques and Their Application
One way to obtain new materials with different properties is to modify existing ones to improve their inadequate properties. Due to the fact that many useful properties of materials, including resistance to wear and corrosion, coefficient of friction and biocompatibility, depend on the state of the surface, modern methods of surface engineering are particularly useful. They include the deposition of layers with a matching chemical composition and structure. In terms of applications, the most suitable seem to be amorphous or nanocrystalline layers containing carbon, nitrogen, silicon and hydrogen. They combine the advantageous properties of silicon carbide SiC and silicon nitride Si3N4 and thus have a strong resistance to oxidation at high temperatures, high modulus of elasticity, low coefficient of friction and wear resistance. However, the silicon carbonitride compound is not thermodynamically stable under normal conditions and therefore must be obtained as a result of unconventional synthesis. One of these methods is chemical vapor deposition (CVD), including the most widely used plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD) techniques. The materials obtained, thanks to these techniques, have found and are still finding wider and wider application in many branches of industry and medicine.
Part of the book: Chemical Vapor Deposition for Nanotechnology