EXPERIMENTAL-OBSERVATIONS ON THE MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES OF NANOSCALE CERAMIC TEFLON MULTILAYERS/

Inspired by the ingenious architecture of nacre and its outstanding me chanical properties, we prepared nanoscale ceramic (TiC, Si3N4, B4C)/T eflon multilayers by ion beam sputtering deposition at room temperatur e. The toughness, hardness and tribological properties were systematic ally investigated as well as the multilayer structures. it was found t hat the toughness of ceramic/Teflon multilayers were all significantly improved in comparison with the corresponding monolithic ceramic mate rial, but the hardness was decreased. However, there were optimized la yer thickness arrangements with which the multilayer toughness and har dness can be favorably combined to obtain better comprehensive propert ies. It was found by this study that ceramic/polymer multilayers with the optimized layer thickness arrangement had good performance in wear resistance. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.