Re/Pt co-doping in CrWN coatings: A triple-barrier strategy for achieving superior anti-adhesion in precision glass molding

Adhesion and interfacial reactions during the precision glass molding (PGM) critically limit mold longevity and product quality. While CrWN nitride coatings offer promising thermomechanical properties, their oxidation susceptibility and interfacial adhesion at elevated temperatures remain major challenges. Here, we design and synthesize Re/Pt co-doped CrWN coatings by plasma-enhanced magnetron sputtering to overcome these limitations. The Re/Pt co-doping disrupts coherent growth of CrWN coating, yielding a denser, smoother surface (Ra reduced from 8.35 nm to 4.29 nm) free of defects. Re single-doping enhances hardness from 23.16 GPa to 25.65 GPa through solid solution strengthening, whereas Pt addition counteracts this, reducing hardness to 19.70 GPa by promoting incoherent interfaces. Remarkably, the co-doped coating shows exceptional anti-adhesion performance, with no spallation or significant glass residue after wetting and molding experiments. This superior performance is associated with a synergistic triple-barrier mechanism, which includes a physical barrier from surface densification, a chemical barrier from inert metallic Pt/Re, and a structural barrier from incoherent interfaces and grain refinement. These barriers collectively act to suppress oxidation, interdiffusion, and interfacial reactions. This work offers a viable co-doping approach to designing high-performance coatings with enhanced anti-adhesion properties for PGM applications.