The aim in this work was to improve the adhesion of diamond coating with pre-deposition of a TaxC interlayer on cemented carbide (WC-Co) substrate by double glow plasma surface alloying technique. The following deposition of diamond coating on the interlayer was performed in a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) reactor. TaxC interlayer with an inner diffusion layer and an outer deposition layer was composed of TaxC and TaC nanocrystalline, and it exhibited a special compact surface morphology formed of flower-shaped pits. As the gradual element distributions existed in the diffusion layer, the interlayer displayed a superior adherence to the substrate with significantly enhanced surface microhardness to the original substrate. After CVD process, the preferred orientation of TaC changed from (2 2 2) to (2 0 0) plane, and a uniform and tense diamond coating with adhesion referred to class HF 2 at least (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure 3198 norm) was obtained on the interlayered substrate. It indicated that the diffusion of Co was effectively inhibited by the formation of TaxC diffusion-deposition interlayer. The TaxC interlayer is most likely to improve the performance of diamond coatings used in cutting tools. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.