The aim of this paper is to review the development and state of the art in the application of certain organosilicon compounds known as trialkoxysilanes (or simply silanes) to the problems of the metal finishing industry. The ultimate goal of this work is the replacement of chromate passivation and paint pretreatments, as well as overcoming the shortcomings of organic coatings formulated in the modern environmentally friendly world, thus without chromate or chromated pigments, volatile organic carbon (VOC) containing compounds or harazardous air pollutants (HAPs).

Nanocomposite coatings demonstrate improved friction and wear responses under severe sliding conditions in extreme environments. This paper provides a review how thin film multilayers and nanocomposites result in hard, tough, low-friction coatings. Approaches to couple multilayered and nanocomposite materials with other surface engineering strategies to achieve higher levels of performance in a variety of tribological applications are also discussed. Encapsulating lubricious phases in hard nanocomposite matrices is one approach that is discussed in detail. Results from state-of-the-art “chameleon” nanocomposites that exhibit reversible adaptability to ambient humidity or temperature are presented.

A novel concept has been developed to coat the inner pore surfaces of reticulated alumina with a thin silver film by an electroless-plating method. As a result of coating, the porous alumina sample exhibits a sharp transition from insulating to conducting due to a thin silver layer on the inner pore surfaces. Systematic studies have been carried out to investigate the coating kinetics by employment of scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and computer simulation. Both coating procedures and effects of processing parameters on the quality of films are reported. Also, this paper presents the film bonding strength to the substrate, effects of sintering, and conduction mechanism of coated composite. The fundamental silver electroless-plating mechanism has been identified based on computer modeling. The simulation results indicate an excellent agreement between the silver deposition behavior and the physical model applied.

CrN coated steels assisted with a nano Cr interlayer were investigated. The Cr nano-interlayers were prepared by sputter deposition with a thickness about 70-100 nm. CrN coatings were also prepared by sputter deposition on the Cr nano-interlayers. The crystal structures, microhardness, and scratch resistance of CrN/Cr coatings were determined. Results show that the Cr nano-interlayers improve scratch resistance and the microhardness of CrN coated steels. A rapid heat treatment with infrared (IR) was performed for coated specimens in the attempt to improve bonding. With IR heat treatments, the beneficial effect of the Cr nano-interlayers was clearly observed. Without the Cr nano-interlayers, severe cracks on the surface of coatings were observed after IR heat treatment. However, with a Cr interlayer, no cracks on the surface of CrN coatings were observed after the heat treatment. The scratch resistance of coatings was also affected by the Cr nano-interlayers. The scratch track was clean and showed significantly smaller amount of scratch debris for CrN coatings with Cr interlayers than those without the Cr nano-interlayers. The microhardness of coatings with the Cr nano-interlayers is higher than those without the Cr nano-interlayers after IR heat treatment. The Cr and CrN phase have been identified with X-ray diffraction analysis, and the results show that the higher the nitrogen content in the sputtering gas, the stronger the CrN peaks observed in the diffraction patterns are.

Carbide-derived carbon (CDC) is a form of carbon produced by reacting metal carbides, such as SiC or TiC, with halogens at temperatures high enough to produce fast kinetics, but too low to permit the rearrangement of the carbon atoms into an equilibrium graphitic structure. The structure of CDC is derivative of the original carbide structure and contains nanoscale porosity and both sp2 and sp3 bonded carbon in a variety of nanoscale structures. CDC can be produced as a thin film on hard carbides to improve their tribological performance. CDC coatings are distinguished by their low friction coefficients and high wear resistance in many important industrial environments and by their resistance to spallation and delamination. The tribology of CDC coatings on SiC surfaces is described in detail.

Interdiffusion can be a major cause of failure in coated parts that see service at elevated temperatures. Ways to measure the extent of interdiffusion and mathematical equations for predicting these measures are given. The equations are based on the error function solution to the diffusion equation and do not take into account variations of the diffusivity with composition. Also, when the substrate of the coating is multiphase, the equations do not take into account the precipitate morphology, but do take into account that precipitates can act as sinks or sources of solute as the average composition of the substrate varies. The equations are meant to be alloy design tools that indicate how changing substrate or coating chemistry will reduce the extent of interdiffusion.

For nano-structured solids (those with one or more dimensions in the 1-100 nm range), attempts of surface modification can pose significant and new challenges. In traditional materials, the surface coating could be several hundreds nanometers in thickness, or even microns and millimeters. In a nano-structured material, such as particle or nanofibers, the coating thickness has to be substantially smaller than the bulk dimensions (100 nm or less), yet be durable and effective. In this paper, some aspects of effective nanometer scale coatings have been discussed. These films have been deposited by a non-line of sight (plasma) techniques; and therefore, they are capable of modifying nanofibers, near net shape cellular foams, and other high porosity materials. Two types of coatings will be focused upon: (a) those that make the surface inert and (b) those designed to enhance surface reactivity and bonding. The former has been achieved by forming 1-2 nm layer of —C—CF2— (and/or CF3) groups on the surface, and the latter by creating a nano-layer of SiO2-type compound. Nucleation and growth studies of the plasma-generated film indicate that they start forming as 2-3 nm high islands that grow laterally, and eventually completely cover the surface with 2-3 nm film. Contact angle measurements indicate that these nano-coatings are fully functional even before they have achieved complete coverage of 2-3 nm. They should therefore be applicable to nano-structural solids. This is corroborated by application of these films on vapor grown nanofibers of carbon, and on graphitic foams. Coated and uncoated materials are infiltrated with epoxy matrix to form composites and their microstructure, as well as mechanical behaviors are compared. The results show that the nano-oxide coating can significantly enhance bond formation between carbon and organic phases, thereby enhancing wettability, dispersion, and composite behavior. The fluorocarbon coating, as expected, reduces bond formation, and therefore, effective as an inert layer to passivate nanomaterials.

Silicon oxide nanowires tend to assemble into various complex morphologies through a metal-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth process. This article summarizes our recent efforts in the controlled growth of silicon oxide nanowire assemblies by using molten gallium as the catalyst and silicon wafer, SiO powder, or silane (SiH4) as the silicon sources. Silicon oxide nanowire assemblies with morphologies of carrotlike, cometlike, gourdlike, spindlelike, badmintonlike, sandwichlike, etc. were obtained. Although the morphologies of the nanowire assemblies are temperature- and silicon source-dependent, they share similar structural and compositional features: all the assemblies contain a microscale spherical liquid Ga ball and a highly aligned, closely packed amorphous silicon oxide nanowire bunch. The Ga-catalyzed silicon oxide nanowire growth reveals several interesting new nanowire growth phenomena that expand our knowledge of the conventional VLS nanowire growth mechanism.

The effects of preheating and pyrolysis temperatures and catalyst concentration on the synthesis of aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using ferrocene as the catalyst and xylene as the carbon source in chemical vapor deposition were experimentally studied. The as-grown aligned CNTs were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electronic microscopy, high-resolution transmission electronic microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The growth rate, the diameters, and the degree of crystal structure of the aligned CNTs were all found to depend on the preheating and pyrolysis temperatures and the catalyst concentration. The optimized conditions for the growth of aligned CNTs resulted in a rapid growth rate of 20.4 μm/min, with the CNTs having a good, uniform crystal structure, and clean surfaces with little amorphous carbon. The results also show that higher preheating temperatures and lower ferrocene concentrations favor the growth of single-walled CNTs.

A high yield of silver nanotubes with large aspect ratio were conveniently synthesized via an organic-assist solvothermal preparation technique using polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a capping reagent and architecture soft-template. The molecular ratio between the repeating unit of PVP and AgNO3 plays a crucial role in determining the geometric shape of the product. Such novel-type Ag nanotubes were self-assembled by Ag nanoparticles, which had largely similar crystallographic orientation, forming a texture. The fact that nanoparticles without anisotropic crystal structures can form such superstructures by self-assembly may open a window for understanding a range of nanotube formation processes.

We have investigated the very initial deposition stages of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with ferrocene (Fe(C5H5)2) and xylene (C8H10) for growing carbon nanotubes, and made clear that the mechanism for the self-organization behaviors of nanotubes at different growth stages by this approach. For instance, the organization of nanotubes into flower-like structures at prolonged deposition is developed from the crystal-like structures formed at early growth stages, both of which are closely related to and determined by the very initial deposition stages of this CVD approach. Based on this approach, ways have been established to build up different architectures of carbon nanotubes, by controlling the initial deposition stages of the CVD process, with which we have realized the selective growth of self-organized carbon nanotube structures. This study provides a new idea for growing carbon nanotube architectures by CVD.