In this experimental work, a p-type c-Si (100) substrate with 8 × 8 × 2 mm dimension was taken for TiCN thin-film coating deposition. The whole deposition process was carried out by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The Si substrate was placed within the CVD chamber at base pressure and process pressure of 0.75 and 500 mTorr, respectively, in the presence of TiO2 (99.99% pure) and C (99.99% pure) powder mixture. Later on, quantity of C powder was varied for different set experiments. The deposition of TiCN coating was carried out in the presence of N2– H2–TiCl4–CH3CN gas mixture and 600 ℃ of fixed temperature. The time for deposition was fixed for 90 min with 10 and 5 ℃ min− 1 heating and cooling rate, respectively. Later on, heat treatment process was carried out over these deposited TiCN samples to investigate the changing characteristics. The heat treatment was carried out at 800 ℃ within the CVD chamber in the absence of any gas flow rate. The morphological properties of heat-treated samples have been improved significantly, evidence is observed from SEM and AFM analyses. The structural analysis by XRD has been suggested, upgradation in crystallinity of the heat-treated film as it possessed with sharp and higher intensity peaks. Evidence has been found that the electrochemical properties are enhanced for heat-treated sample. Raman spectroscopy shows that the intensity of acoustic phonon modes predominates the optic phonon modes for untreated samples, whereas for heat-treated samples, opposite trends have been observed. However, significant degradation in mechanical properties for heat-treated sample has been observed compared to untreated sample.

Influence of post-heat treatment over structural network and mechanical properties of carbon (C)-incorporated CVD TiCN thin-film coating
    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Experimental details
        2.1 Brief description of sample preparation
        2.2 Heat treatment process of TiCN samples
        2.3 Sample characterization details
    3 Results and discussion
        3.1 Investigation of elemental composition using energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)
        3.2 Microstructural analysis of TiCN coating using SEM images
        3.3 Investigation of surface morphology of TiCN coating before and after the heat treatment
        3.4 Electrochemical property analysis of TiCN coating before and after the heat treatment process
        3.5 Corrosion analysis of TiCN coating before heat treatment and post-heat treatment process
        3.6 Dynamic friction coefficient analysis of TiCN coating
        3.7 Structural analysis using X-ray diffraction (XRD)
        3.8 Raman spectroscopy analysis of TiCN coating before and after the heat treatment
        3.9 Analysis of load–displacement curve and nano-mechanical properties of TiCN coating with and without heat treatment
    4 Conclusion
    References

• Soham Das(Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Sikkim Manipal University, Majhitar, Rangpo, East Sikkim 737136, India)
• Spandan Guha(School of Mechanical Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751024, India)
• Ranjan Kr. Ghadai(Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Sikkim Manipal University, Majhitar, Rangpo, East Sikkim 737136, India)