“…2,3 An increasing amount of attention, however, has been focused on the properties of amorphous carbon nitride (a-C:N) materials, with special attention to their tribological, optical, electronic, and chemical properties. These properties have been investigated with respect to their applications in wear-resistant [4][5][6][7] and optical [8][9][10] coatings, field emission devices, [11][12][13][14] hydrogen storage, [15][16][17] and electrochemical systems. 18,19 Various deposition processes, including both physical and chemical vapor deposition (CVD), have been explored to meet the demands of these applications, which generally require smooth, pinhole-free films with good adhesion to the underlying substrate.…”