In this study, the effects of nitrogen codoping on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Cr-doped diamond-like carbon (DLC) nanocomposite coatings were investigated in detail. Compared with undoped DLC coatings, the Cr-DLC and N/Cr-DLC coatings showed higher root-mean-square (RMS) roughness values. However, from the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman results, the fraction of sp² carbon bonds of N/Cr-DLC coatings increased with increasing N content, which indicated the graphitization of the coatings. The hardness and elastic modulus of N/Cr-DLC coatings with 1.8 at. % N were about 26.8 and 218 GPa, respectively. The observed hardness increase with N codoping was attributed to the incorporation of N in the C network along with the formation of CrC(N) nanoparticles, as confirmed from the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results. The internal stress markedly decreased from 0.93 to 0.32 GPa as the N content increased from 0 to 10.3 at. %. Furthermore, N doping significantly improved the high-temperature dry friction behavior of DLC coatings. The friction coefficient of N/Cr-DLC coatings with 8.0 and 10.3 at. % N was kept at about 0.2 during the overall sliding test at 500 °C. These results showed that appropriate N doping could promote the mechanical and tribological properties of Cr-DLC nanocomposite coatings.

A diethylenetriamine (DETA)-assisted hydrothermal method was explored for the synthesis of kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4(CZTS) nanoparticles. As complexing agent, DETA was employed to dissolve sulfur and to...

Cr–Si–O–N coatings with different oxygen contents were deposited by multi-arc ion plating, where various O₂/(N₂ + O₂) reactive gas rates were adopted. The XRD and XPS results showed that the CrN crystals disappeared with the increasing of the oxygen flux ratio to 10 at.%. The microhardness of all the Cr–Si–O–N coatings was approximately 2000 Hv_0.05, which were dramatically plummeted compared to that of the Cr–Si–N coatings (≈3300 Hv_0.05). The Cr–Si–O–N coatings were annealed under 800 °C and 1200 °C in the air atmosphere for 2 h to study the high-temperature oxidation resistance of the coatings. Meanwhile, Cr–Si–O–N coatings with different O₂/(N₂ + O₂) rates were also used to carry out the corrosion resistance testing using the electrochemical working station in 3.5% NaCl solution under free air condition at room temperature. The results indicated that the coatings containing oxygen were more vulnerable to the high-temperature destruction and more easily corroded in the NaCl electrolyte.