Effect of thickness on structural, corrosion and mechanical properties of a thin ZrN film deposited by medium frequency (MF) reactive sputtering

Abstract

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.

Silicon influence on corrosion resistance of magnetron sputtered ZrN and ZrSiN thin films

“…Transition metal oxides and nitrides thin films such as ZrN coatings are used in various industrial applications due to their favourable mechanical properties [5][6][7][8][9] and corrosion resistance [10,11]. These coatings improve the material surface properties, such as corrosion and wear resistance, and act as a diffusion barrier on the flexible pipes.…”

“…More recently, ternary and quaternary coatings have attracted increasing interest due to the combination of high hardness, toughness, good wear resistance, corrosion protection and high oxidation resistance [15]. The addition of a third element such as Al, Cr and Si has often been reported in the literature with the aim of improving the mechanical properties and the chemical resistance of nitride coatings [10,15,16]. Many efforts have been made to add Si into ZrN coatings, to form a nanocomposite film structure, in which nanosized ZrN crystallised phase is embedded in an amorphous silicon nitride matrix [17], constituting one of its grain boundaries [6,7].…”