Thermal Stability and Corrosion Resistance of Cr/CrN Multilayer Coatings on Ti6Al4V Alloy

Abstract:

The aim of this work was to investigate thermal stability and corrosion resistance of the Cr/CrN multilayer coatings. For this purpose, multilayer Cr/CrN coating was deposited on Ti6Al4V titanium alloy using PVD vacuum arc method. The Cr/CrN coating has thickness of 5.6 μm and was composed of 16 layers (8 Cr and 8 CrN). The Cr layers has thickness of 0.26 μm and were composed of columnar grains. CrN layer has thickness of 0.32 μm and were characterized by needle-like structure. Because of the potential application of the investigated coatings, thermal stability in temperature range of 300-500°C as well as corrosion behavior during salt fog test were analyzed.The investigation showed that microstructure of Cr/CrN multilayer coating was stable up to 400°C. In this temperature only a slight increase of thickness of transition Cr₂N layer was observed. Annealing at temperature of 500°C changed the microstructure of the constituent Cr and CrN layers and caused decrease of their thicknesses due to increase of thickness of Cr₂N transition layer. Annealing at 500°C also increased the hardness of Cr/CrN coating. XPS analysis revealed the presence of the CrO₃ and Cr₂O₃ on the surface after annealing. Cr/CrN multilayer coatings exhibit also excellent corrosion resistant in salt fog test. No corrosion products was observed on the Cr/CrN coating surface after 120 hour of test.

• Periodical: Solid State Phenomena (Volume 237)
• Pages: 47-53
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.237.47
• Online since: August 2015
• Authors: Piotr Wieciński*, Jerzy Smolik, Halina Garbacz, Krzysztof Jan Kurzydłowski
• Keywords: Multilayer Coatings, Salt Fog Test, Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM), Thermal Stability

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