Effects of Bias Voltage on Microstructure, Hardness and Bonding Strength of TiN Coating Deposited by High Power Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering

摘要

The bias voltage exercises a great influence on micro-properties (morphology, preferred orientation, mechanical properties, etc.) of the coatings in the process of coating deposition. In order to more systematically explore the influence of bias voltage on microstructure, hardness and adhesion of TiN coatings, TiN coatings were successfully deposited on the surface of 316 stainless steel by high power pulsed magnetron sputtering (HPPMS). A field emission scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive spectrometer (FESEM/EDS) and an X-ray diffractometer were employed to analyze the surface morphology, chemical composition and phase structure of coatings, respectively. And a nanoindentation and scratch tester was used to investigate the hardness, elastic modulus and adhesion of TiN coatings. Results showed that bias voltage has a great influence on surface morphology of TiN coatings. Moreover, bias voltage can promote preferential orientation and the phase in TiN coating is mainly TiN with a small amount of Ti_2N. The influence of bias voltage on the hardness and modulus of TiN coating is not obvious, however, the binding force increases fast first and then decreases slow with the increase of bias voltage. TiN coating has excellent performance when bias voltage is -100V.