Influence of Microstructure and Stress State on Service Performance of TiN Coatings Deposited by Dual-Stage HIPIMS

Abstract:

TiN coatings were prepared by the novel dual-stage high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) technique under different deposition time conditions, and the effects of microstructure and stress state at different coating growth stages on the mechanical, tribological, and corrosion resistance performance of the coatings were analyzed. Results show that with the prolongation of deposition time from 30 min to 120 min, the surface structure of TiN coating exhibits a round cell structure with tightly doped small and large particles, maintaining the atomic stacking thickening mechanism of deposition-crystallization-growth. When the deposition time increases from 90 min to 120 min, the coating thickness increases from 3884 nm to 4456 nm, and the stress state of coating undergoes the compression-tension transition. When the deposition time is 90 min, TiN coating structure is dense and suffers relatively small compressive stress of -0.54 GPa. The coating has high hardness and elastic modulus, which are 27.5 and 340.2 GPa, respectively. Meanwhile, good tribological properties (average friction coefficient of 0.52, minimum wear rate of 1.68×10^-4 g/s) and fine corrosion resistance properties (minimum corrosion current density of 1.0632×10^-8 A·cm^-2, minimum corrosion rate of 5.5226×10^-5 mm·A^-1) can also be obtained for the coatings.

Key words:dual-stage HIPIMS;TiN coatings;stress;service performance