Effect of nitrogen gas ratio on the properties of TI-ZR-N coatings deposited by pulsed magnetron sputtering

الملخص EN

The aim of this paper was to study the effectiveness of N2/Ar gas ratio on the mechanical and tribological properties of Ti-Zr-N films coated on (AISI 304 stainless steel) substrate.

The thin films were produced at 150 W pulsed magnetron sputtering (PMS) technique operated for 90 min.

The structure and tribo-mechanical properties of the Ti-Zr-N coatings were investigated at different N2 /Ar gas pressure ratio.

X-ray diffraction (XRD), microhardness, surface roughness, wear and friction, corrosion performance and surface energy were investigated.

The analysis of X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated a formation of solid solution phase of (Ti-Zr)N with (FCC) structure and a chemical compound phase of TiN.

The solid solution phase (Ti-Zr)N has the orientation (111).

The microhardness of the thin films has high values compared to associated value of (AISI 304 stainless steel) substrate; up to 4-folds.

Furthermore, the wear performance was improved from 73.06 mm3 /m for AISI substrate to 5.01 mm3 /m after depositing Ti-Zr-N.

The coefficient of friction was decreased from nearly 0.69 for the austenitic substrate to nearly 0.12 after coating with Ti-Zr-N.

Over and above, the corrosion resistance substantially improved (factor of 1000 times) after the coating