Achieving superior wear resistance on titanium alloy via large-span heterostructured coatings

Enhancing the wear resistance of titanium alloys has always been a key challenge in improving their engineering applications. In this study, we introduce a novel strategy for achieving superior wear resistance on titanium alloy via large-span heterostructured (LSH) coatings. The average wear rates of LSH CrFeAl medium entropy alloy coatings were only 0.42% and 7% of the TC4 substrate at room and 400°C temperature, and also outperformed other related HEA, TiN and WC-reinforced composite coatings. Comprehensive analysis confirmed that the exceptional wear performance is attributed to the gradient grain structure, which effectively accommodates wear-induced deformations and mitigates adhesive wear. This work provides a novel strategy for preparing the large-span heterostructure coatings on titanium alloy with the gradient grain structure ranging from 62 nm to 6.8 µm to achieve superior wear resistance at different temperature.