Influence of silicon on the microstructure and the chemical properties of nanostructured ZrN-Si coatings deposited by means of pulsed-DC reactive magnetron sputtering
By P, H. S. Vanegas; V, S. Calderon; O, J. E. Alfonso; F, J. J. Olaya; Ferreira, P. J.; Carvalho, S.
Published in Applied Surface Science
2019
Abstract
Transition metal nitride coatings have been widely used in various industrial applications due to their physical and chemical properties. For instance, they have been used as protective coatings against wear and corrosion. Among the large family of metal nitride coatings, zirconium nitride (ZrN) has been extensively studied in order to determine its suitability for different applications, due to the fact that ZrN coatings have been shown to have better corrosion resistance, lower resistivity, and higher mechanical properties than titanium nitride (TiN) coatings. In this investigation, ZrN coatings with different silicon (Si) contents were deposited by means of pulsed-DC reactive magnetron sputtering, and the influence of the Si content on the composition, chemical state of the elements, microstructure, and optical and electrochemical properties of the coatings was studied using energy-disperse spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), UV