TY - GEN A1 - Aissani, Linda A1 - Fellah, Mamoun A1 - Belgroune, Ahlam A1 - Obrosov, Aleksei A1 - Samad, Mohammed Abdul A1 - Alhussein, Akram T1 - Effect of O2 flow rate on the structure, wettability and tribo-mechanical behaviour of Zr-O-N thin films T2 - Surfaces and Interfaces N2 - Structural and tribo-mechanical properties of Zr-O-N films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering in a mixture of Ar (flow rate = 80 sccm), N2 (flow rate = 20 sccm) and O2 with a varying flow rate of 0 to 12 sccm were investigated. The films were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray analysis, atomic force microscopy, nanoindentation and wear tests. Oxygen content have a significant effect on the microstructure, wettability, tribo-mechanical properties of Zr-O-N films. The Zr-O-N films showed a dense structure with a mixture of zirconium oxides and nitrides and the preferred orientation changed from (111) ZrN to (200) ZrN with increasing O2 flow rate. The ZrON film, deposited at an oxygen flow rate of 10 sccm exhibited the highest contact angle (147°), the highest hardness (27.1 GPa), the lowest friction coefficient (0.36) and the lowest wear rate (5.8 × 10−7 mm3.Nm−1). The improvement in the tribological performance of the ZrON film deposited at 10 sccm is attributed to the improved hardness and increased H/E and H3/E2 ratios, due to the formation of a hard solid solution by the diffusion of oxygen. KW - Magnetron sputtering KW - Zr-O-N KW - Microstructure KW - Wettability KW - Surface Energy KW - Nanoindentation KW - Friction Y1 - 2021 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468023021005186#! U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfin.2021.101441 SN - 2468-0230 VL - 26 ER -