Mechanical and tribological properties of multilayered TiSiN/CrN coatings synthesized by a cathodic arc deposition process

摘要

The monolayered TiSiN and multilayered TiSiN/CrN were synthesized by cathodic arc evaporation. The Ti/Si (80/20 at.%) and chromium targets were used as the cathodic materials. With the different I-[TiSi]/I-[cr] cathode current ratios of 1.8, 1.0, and 0.55, the multilayered TiSiN/CrN coatings possessed different multilayer periods (Lambda) of 8.3 run, 6.2 mn, and 4.2 mn. From XRD and TEM analyses, both the monolayered TiSiN and multilayered TiSiN/CrN revealed a typical columnar structure and Bl-NaCl crystalline, no peaks of crystalline Si3N4 were detected. Among the multilayered TiSiN/CrN coatings, the multilayered coating with Lambda=8.3 nm possessed higher hardness of 37 +/- 2 GPa, higher elastic modulus of 396 20 GPa and the lower residual stress of -1.60 GPa than the monolayered (Ti0.39Si0.07)N-0.54 coating(-7.25 GPa). Due to the higher Cr/(Ti+ Cr+Si) atomic ratio, the multilayered TiSiN/CrN with Lambda=5.5 mn possessed the lowest friction coefficient. But the lowest of wear rate was obtained by the multilayered TiSiN/CrN with Lambda=8.3 mn, because of higher H-3/E-*2 ratio of 0.323 GPa. The monolayered TiSiN possessed the highest wear rate of 2.87 mu m(2)/min. Therefore, the mechanical and tribological property can be improved by the design of multilayered coating. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.