The study of bonding composition of CNx film by thermal degradation method

A comparison study between atomic and ionic nitrogen doped carbon films prepared by ion beam assisted cathode arc deposition at various pulse frequencies

“…Neuville [30] has reviewed that the conclusions on the material structure (various characterization results) should always be in agreement to each other and especially coherent with the hardness measurement. The hardness itself depends on chemical bonds [2,14,17,21,26,29] and atomic density within the films, especially when other types of atoms (contaminants, dopants such as O, N, B and metals) are incorporated in the carbon based films [31]. This interpretation can also support the phenomena that the hardness of CN x films increases in the case of cross-linking of graphitic planes by sp 3 bonded carbons, which is widely accepted in the literature [2,32].…”

“…Especially for the latter, N bonded to two sp 2 C at the edge of a graphitic sheet (pyridine-like), N bonded to three sp 2 C in the center of a graphite sheet (graphite-like), pyrrolic-like or other heterocyclic nitrogen configurations, their N1s binding energy can vary in a broad range from 398.3 eV to 401.7 eV [19][20][21]. Table 2 roughly lists the assignment of main bonding configuration referred by different authors [2,14,16,17,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Apparently it is difficult to assign the N bonding configuration if only compare them, because the investigated CN x films are distinctly different in the microstructure and synthesis conditions, but these factors can determine the bonding state of nitrogen atoms within the carbon matrix.…”

“…The deconvolution of the peaks was executed by curve fitting using Gaussian-Lorentz function, which the Gaussian fraction retains with 20% for all films. The C1s region consists of two well-resolved binding energy configurations, C1 at 284.5 ± 0.2 eV and C2 at 285.7 ± 0.2 eV, which are assigned to bonds with carbon (C C and C C) and carbon coordinated nitrogen bonds (C N and C N), respectively [14][15][16][17][18]. The third configuration located at about 287.7 ± 0.2 eV (denoted by C3) is attributed to carbon coordinated oxygen bonds (C O or C O) in the surface layer.…”

Crystalline carbon nitride film synthesized by ion beam assisted magnetron sputtering and thermal annealing in nitrogen gas

“…The first contribution at 398.8 eV corresponds to sp 3 CN bonding, while the second one at 400.2 eV is due to sp 2 CN bonding, other peak fitted at 399.5-399.6 eV is attributed to nitrile. Also, it should be noted that C`N bonds can also produce three peaks in this region, at 398.2, 398.1 and 400.1 eV [31][32][33]. However, these assignments have been discounted, because they are outside the experimental accuracy of the XPS.…”

Preparation and Characterization of CrN/CN and Nano‐TiN/CN Composites

“…A morphous carbon nitride (a‐CN) materials are currently being extensively studied because they have unusual properties such as high hardness and elasticity, chemical inertness, lack of magnetic response, and varied optical gap 1–5 . The most widely accepted structure model of hard and elastic a‐CN proposes that the material consists of buckled graphite‐like basal planes containing carbon and nitrogen, and that these planes are cross‐linked by nonplanar nitrogen or carbon atoms 4,5 .…”