Effect of Plasma Boronitriding on Diamond Nucleation and Growth onto Cemented Carbide Substrates

Plasma boronitriding has been successfully employed to overcome the difficulty in diamond growth on ferrous-based substrates. Commercial cobalt-sintered, tungsten-cemented carbides (WC(Co)) were pretreated by a plasma boronitriding method, diamond was then deposited by microwave-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD). The deposited films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Continuous diamond films with a sharp characteristic Raman peak of 1334 cm-1 were grown and adhered well on the boronitrided region of the cemented carbide substrates. On the other hand, a mixture of diamond crystallites, amorphous carbon and graphitic carbon was loosely deposited on the unboronitrided region. A cobalt inert thin layer formed after plasma boronitriding pretreatment enabled the subsequent nucleation and growth of a high-quality CVD diamond.