Adhesion and material transfer between contacting Al and TiN surfaces from first principles

TL;DR

This study uses density functional theory to analyze how Al and TiN surfaces interact, adhere, and transfer material, revealing that transfer depends on adhesion energy and surface configuration, not just surface energies.

Contribution

First-principles DFT simulations systematically investigate adhesion and material transfer at Al/TiN interfaces considering multiple surface orientations and configurations.

Findings

Material transfer occurs when adhesion energy exceeds surface removal energy.

Interfacial properties are highly sensitive to surface orientation and arrangement.

Surface energy comparison alone cannot predict material transfer.

Abstract

A series of density functional theory (DFT) simulations was performed to investigate the approach, contact, and subsequent separation of two atomically flat surfaces consisting of different materials. Aluminum (Al) and titanium nitride (TiN) slabs were chosen as a model system representing a metal-ceramic interface and the interaction between soft and hard materials. The approach and separation were simulated by moving one slab in discrete steps normal to the surfaces allowing for electronic and atomic relaxations after each step. Various configurations were analyzed by considering (001), (011), and (111) surfaces as well as several lateral arrangements of these surfaces at the interface. Several tests were conducted on the computational setup, for example, by changing the system size or using different approximations for the exchange correlation functional. The performed simulations revealed the influences of these aspects on adhesion, equilibrium distance, and material transfer. These interfacial properties depend sensitively on the chosen configuration due to distinct bond situations. Material transfer, in particular, was observed if the absolute value of the adhesion energy for a given configuration is larger than the energy cost to remove surface layers. This result was found to be independent of the employed exchange correlation functional. Furthermore, it was shown that a simple comparison of the surface energies of the slabs is not sufficient to predict the occurrence of material transfer.