Thermal treatment of (TiZr)N coatings on CO₂‐controlled atmosphere

Abstract

Currently, studies about the CO 2 gas injection improve the production efficiency of crude oil. The surface interaction between CO 2 and thin films is a large area of research in the scientific community. In this work, we are showing that The TiZrN (coating) + Si (substrate) system immersed on environments of fully CO 2 can interact to below 400 C temperature, because the TiZrN (coating) + Si (substrate) system is broken to temperatures above of the 400 C. The Ti2p, Zr3d, N1s, O1s, and C1s narrow spectra are shown, which illustrate the evolution of TiZrN to TiN x , TiO x , and TiON x compounds and afterwards to TiO 2 and ZrO 2 phases. TiN x , TiO x , and TiON x compounds are responsible for the increase of the micro-hardness (measured through Vickers Hardness Testing) of the system (TiZrN [coating] + Si [substrate]) due to that are found at 400 C thermal treatment. Topographical images obtained by atomic force microscopy showed an increase of the surface roughness due to the thermal treatment. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that sample submit to 600 C temperature suffered fracture with small indentations.