Abstract：The nano-mechanical and friction/wear properties of SiC（silicon carbon） thin film deposited on Mg alloy（AZ91D） substrate using magnetron sputtering technique at room temperature were investigated with a Nano Indenter and a friction and wear tester.The results show that the SiC film exhibites a low nano-hardness（12.39 GPa） and Young′s modulus（78.93 GPa） but a high ratio of hardness to modulus（0.157）.The film-substrate system exhibites good friction/wear properties with the friction coefficient of about 0.248 and the special wear rate in the order of 10-5mm3·m-1·N-1 together with little film cracking and interface delamination when sliding against Si3N4（silicon nitride） ball using ball-on-disc frictional and wear tester under dry frictional condition.The high wear-resistance is in accordance with low hardness,high hardness-to-modulus ratio and good film-substrate modulus match.The abnormal nano-mechanical behaviors are believed to be due to the high activity and low melting point of the substrate magnesium.
2009, Vol. 30 
