Tribological Properties and Corrosion Resistance Properties of NbN/TiN Multilayer, TiNb-N_X Single-Layer and Coatings that are Doped with Carbon

Abstract

NbN/TiN, TiNb-NX and CH-TiNb-N12 coatings are deposited by RF magnetron sputtering to determine the tribological properties and corrosion resistance. ‘x’ is the flux rate for nitrogen and ‘CH’ signifies the addition of acetylene. In terms of the corrosion resistance, all the coatings have a similar corrosion potential and NbN/TiN multilayer coatings exhibit the lowest corrosion current. The NbN/TiN multilayer has a low pitting potential so severe pitting corrosion is observed on the surface. CH-TiNb-N12 coating is most resistant to corrosion and exhibits no pitting before the test ends. In contact with counter-bodies with a Si3N4 ball or an AISI 52100 ball, a CH-TiNb-N12 coating acts as a solid lubricant so the wear mechanism shows the least abrasion. The CH-TiNb-N12 coating has the lowest wear rate and coefficient of friction for sliding against Si3N4 and AISI 52100 balls. The wear rate is respectively 3.2 and 6.8 times less than that for SKH51 substrate when sliding against Si3N4 and AISI 52100 balls. The results for this study show that a TiNb-N12-CH coating has the best tribological properties and corrosion resistance.