Effect of Si Addition on the Corrosion Behavior of Ti-Si-N Coatings Prepared by a Hybrid Coating System

Abstract

Ti-Si-N coatings were deposited on stainless steel substrates using a hybrid coating system consisting of arc ion plating for Ti and a dc magnetron sputtering technique for Si in a gaseous N(2)/Ar mixture. On increasing the Si content in the Ti-Si-N coating, the microstructure changed from columnar to a nanocomposite. The anodic polarization measurement performed in 3 wt % NaCl solutions at room temperature revealed that Ti-Si-N coatings with higher Si contents had better corrosion resistance due to the formation of a unique nanocomposite microstructure where the highly corrosion-resistive amorphous SiN(x) phases surrounded the TiN crystallites. (C) 2009 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3059096] All rights reserved.