Evaluation of Strength for Borosilicate Glass Coated with Ceramic Materials by Sputtering

The durability of coated materials with high performance should be adequately evaluated prior to their application. This study aims at establishing a procedure to estimate the durability of such materials. In this study, a borosilicate glass was coated with ceramic films by a radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method, and mechanical properties of materials coated with single ceramic materials, alumina (Al2O3), silicon carbide (SiC), or titanium nitride (TiN), were investigated. Roughness and hardness were measured as surface characteristics of coated glass. The strength of coated glass was evaluated under three-point bending mode. It was found that the strength properties were improved by coating ceramic materials on glass. As for the strength properties, TiN-coated glass was superior to Al2O3- or SiC-coated glass, although the surface of TiN-coated glass was rougher compared with that of Al2O3- or SiC-coated glass. A new procedure to estimate the strength of coated materials was proposed by incorporating relative hardness and roughness variations with sputtering time. The strength in experiments was adequately estimated by using the proposed procedure.