Present work involves the preparation of Zirconium Nitride thin¯lms on stainless steel (SS) (304L grade) substrate by reactive cylindrical magnetron sputtering method. The X-ray di®raction (XRD) pro¯le of the ZrN thin¯lms prepared with di®erent bias voltage conforms face centered cubic structure with preferred orientation along the (111) plane at lower bias voltage (100 V) and at higher bias voltage (300 V) the preferred orientation shifted to (220) plane. The in°uences of bias voltage on the thickness and microhardness ZrN thin¯lms have been studied. ZrN thin¯lm sputtered with 300 V bias voltage shows the maximum re°ectance of 90% at a wavelength of 1000 nm. The coated substrates have been found to exhibit improved corrosion resistance compared to the SS plate. The root mean square surface roughness and surface morphology were investigated from 3D atomic force microscope (AFM) images and scanning electron microscope (SEM), which indicate smooth and uniform surface pattern without any pin holes.
Zirconium nitride (ZrN) thin films were prepared on stainless steel (SS) substrates by medium frequency (MF) reactive sputtering with gas ion source (GIS) by varying the deposition time and obtained thickness (tZrN) in the range of 1.25 to 3.24 μm. The effect of thickness on the structural and microstructural properties was studied using XRD and AFM. XRD characterization revealed that the texture of the ZrN thin films changes as a function of thickness. Both, the (111) and (200) peak, appear initially and (111) becomes more intense with increasing tZrN. AFM imaging revealed that the ZrN thin film coated with tZrN ≈ 3.24 μm shows larger grains that are uniformly distributed over the surface. An average hardness value of 19.79 GPa was observed for ZrN thin films having tZrN ≈ 3.24 μm. The ZrN thin films having tZrN ≈ 3.24 μm exhibits better adhesion strength up to 20 N. The electrochemical polarization studies indicated that the ZrN thin film having larger thickness shows improved corrosion resistance compared to SS in 3.5 % NaCl solution.
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