Toughening of nanocomposite hard coatings

Abstract For engineering applications, hardness must be complimented with high toughness for applications where high contact loads are there. A good combination of hardness, toughness and low coefficient of friction can be achieved, by suitable tailoring of microstructures of coating in hard nanocomposite coatings. Tribologocal applications require hard coatings with tailored functionalities for different applications; hard nanocomposite coatings are potential materials for such applications. Ti and amorphous carbon based systems have shown more promising material. The present review discusses the nanocomposite hard coatings, mechanism of enhancement of toughness, multilayer hard nanocomposite coatings. Here, mainly Ti and Si based nanocomposite has been discussed as carbon based reviews are available in plenty in literature and well documented. Ti-B-N, Ti-Si-B-C, Ti-Si-B-C-N, Si-C-N, Ti-Al-N, Ti-Al-Si-N, Al-Si-N, Ti-Cr-Al-N, Zr-Si-N and some other similar system nanocomposite hard coatings are important where the gradual and intelligent additions of different elements in hard single component phase provides the combination of hardness, toughness and low coefficient of friction. Some of these systems are discussed. In the end, the future directions of research, Technology„ which are required to achieve tough nanocomposite hard coatings for actual applications are also highlighted.