GROWTH STRUCTURE EFFECT ON THE CORROSION RESISTANCE AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF CrNx COATING.

A new approach was adopted to improve the corrosion behavior of the chromium nitride (CrN_x) hard coating through magnetron sputtering deposition at different nitrogen flow rates. The influence of the nitrogen flow rates on the chemical composition, microstructure, mechanical property and corrosion behavior in artificial seawater of the CrN_x coatings was investigated. The results show that with the increase of the nitrogen flow rates, the growth structure of the coatings varied from dense granular growth to coarse columnar growth. Increasing the nitrogen flow rates was helpful to decrease the Cr/N ratio and induce the phase transforming from mixed hexagonal Cr₂N and face-centered cubic CrN to single CrN. However, the coatings under different nitrogen flow rates significantly improved the corrosion resistance and hardness of the steel substrate. Furthermore, at high nitrogen flow rate, the coating had high corrosion velocity and low protective capability against the substrate corrosion due to the fast corrosion channels acted by the columnar grain boundaries. While at the middle nitrogen flow rate, the coating with CrN phase, densely granular growth structure and moderate grain size resulted in excellent corrosion resistance and highest hardness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]