4.3 Article

Influence of Content of Al2O3 on Structure and Properties of Nanocomposite Nb-B-Al-O films

Journal

NANOSCALE RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

SPRINGEROPEN
DOI: 10.1186/s11671-015-1149-z

Keywords

Nb-B-Al-O nanocomposite films; Crystallization; Amorphous; Mechanical; Bombarding energy

Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China [51472180]
  2. High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) [2015AA034702]
  3. Joint Funds Project of Tianjin Natural Science Foundation of China [15JCQNJC42500]
  4. Training Plan of Leader Talent of University in Tianjin
  5. Excellent Young Teachers Program of Tianjin Normal University [ZX110QN045]
  6. Youth Foundation of Tianjin Normal University [52XQ1404]

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Nb-B-Al-O nanocomposite films with different power of Al2O3 were successfully deposited on the Si substrate via multi-target magnetron co-sputtering method. The influences of Al2O3's content on structure and properties of obtained nanocomposite films through controlling Al2O3's power were investigated. Increasing the power of Al2O3 can influence the bombarding energy and cause the momentum transfer of NbB2. This can lead to the decreasing content of Al2O3. Furthermore, the whole films showed monocrystalline NbB2's (100) phase, and Al2O3 shaded from amorphous to weak cubic-crystalline when decreasing content of Al2O3. This structure and content changes were proof by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). When NbB2 grains were far from each other in lower power of Al2O3, the whole films showed a typical nanocomposite microstructure with crystalline NbB2 grains embedded in a matrix of an amorphous Al2O3 phase. Continuing increasing the power of Al2O3, the less content of Al2O3 tended to cause crystalline of cubic-Al2O3 between the close distances of different crystalline NbB2 grains. The appearance of cubic-crystallization Al2O3 can help to raise the nanocomposite films' mechanical properties to some extent. The maximum hardness and elastic modulus were up to 21.60 and 332.78 GPa, which were higher than the NbB2 and amorphous Al2O3 monolithic films. Furthermore, this structure change made the chemistry bond of O atom change from the existence of O-Nb, O-B, and O-Al bonds to single O-Al bond and increased the specific value of Al and O. It also influenced the hardness in higher temperature, which made the hardness variation of different Al2O3 content reduced. These results revealed that it can enhance the films' oxidation resistance properties and keep the mechanical properties at high temperature. The study highlighted the importance of controlling the Al2O3's content to prepare well-defined films with high mechanical properties and thermal stability.

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