Patent ID: 7786393

Claim:
A contact element for making an electrical contact to a contact member for enabling an electric current to flow between said contact element and said contact member, said contact element comprising: a body having at least a contact surface thereof coated with a contact layer arranged to be applied against said contact member, which contact layer comprises a film comprising a multielement material, wherein said multielement material comprises material with equal composition as at least one of a carbide or nitride that is described as M n+1 AX n where M is a transition metal or a combination of a transition metals, n is 1, 2, 3 or higher, A is a group A element or a combination of a group A element, and X is Carbon, Nitrogen or both, said multielement material also comprises at least one nanocomposite comprising single elements, binary phases, ternary phases, quaternary phases or higher order phases based on atomic elements in the M n+1 AX n compound, wherein said nanocomposite comprises at least one of M-X and M-A-X nanocrystals and at least one amorphous region with M, A, X elements in one or several phases.