Diamond-like Nanocomposite (DLN) coatings are amorphous, hard and wear resistant coatings, deposited using a plasma-assisted CVD process. These coatings consist of two interpenetrating networks, one being a diamond-like carbon (a-C:H) network and the other a glass-like a-Si:O network.  

This specific structure leads to lower internal stress, better adhesion and higher temperature stability as compared to diamond-like carbon.The most common procedures used for investigation of structure and composition of DLN films are Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), HRTEM, FESEM and X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS).

DLN coating have excellent bulk and surface property as well as thermal stability. This can be used as tribological coatings, chemical protective coatingsand abrasion resistant coatings. It has optical transparency over a wide bandwidth which includes visible light and infrared. Due to this reason, DLN coating is used as antireflection coating over the solar cell to enhance the overall efficiency of the system. Due to low residual stress DLN coating has excellent adhesion to variety of substrate materials.

This low-friction and low-wear behaviour of Diamond-Like Nanocomposite coatings, also in humid environments, enables industrial applications of these coatings as hard, self-lubricating coatings on sliding parts in the automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical or biomedical industry.

In this paper (Characterization and Applications of Diamond-like Nanocomposites: A Brief Review) depositions, structure, chemical composition as well as mechanical, optical, electrical, properties of DLN composite films are elaborated and industrial and prospective applications of DLN films are discussed.

References:

[1] D Neerinck, P Persoone, M Sercu, A Goel, C Venkatraman, D Kester, C Halter, P Swab, D Bray,Diamond-like nanocomposite coatings for low-wear and low-friction applications in humid environments,Thin Solid Films,1998,Pages 402-404.

[2] Aleksandra N. Koreshkova, Vipul Gupta, Anton Peristyy, Chowdhury K. Hasan, Pavel N. Nesterenko, Brett Paull, Recent advances and applications of synthetic diamonds in solid-phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography, Journal of Chromatography A, 10.1016/j.chroma.2021.461936, 1640, (461936), (2021).

[3] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jbm.b.30768

[4] https://systems.enpress-publisher.com/index.php/CAN/article/view/554