Electrochemical behavior of diamond-like-carbon coatings deposited on AlTiC (Al2O3 + TiC) ceramic composite substrate in HCl solution

The electrochemical characterization/corrosion behavior of diamond-like carbon thin films is worthwhile to study and needed in the field (as there has been limited comprehensive evaluation of this across all types of DLC in the literature). In this paper, newly developed tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) and hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films, prepared by filtered cathodic arc deposition (FCVA) and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) respectively were deposited over AlTiC (Al₂O₃ + TiC) ceramic composite substrate. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and polarization measurements have been used to evaluate the coating performance in 2 M HCl solution. This ceramic substrate is used widely for the hard disk drives and read and write heads in computer. The memory of the hard disks can be increased by improving the surface quality and decreasing the pinholes. The DLC coatings were modified under different preparation conditions by changing the nitrogen-doping ratios as an attempt for improving the surface distribution and minimizing the surface coating defects.