In the current study, the properties of the CrₓN coatings deposited on the Inconel 718 superalloy using direct current reactive magnetron sputtering are investigated. The influence of working pressure on the microstructure, mechanical, and tribological properties of the CrₓN coatings before and after high-temperature hydrogen exposure is studied. The cross-sectional scanning electron micrographs indicate the columnar structure of the coatings, which changes from dense and compact columns to large columns with increasing working pressure. The Cr/N ratio increases from 1.4 to 1.9 with increasing working pressure from 300 to 900 mPa, respectively. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals a change from mixed hcp-Cr₂N and fcc-CrN structure to approximately stoichiometric Cr₂N phase. After gas-phase hydrogenation, the coating deposited at 300 mPa exhibits the lowest hydrogen absorption at 600 °C of all investigated coatings. The results indicate that the dense mixed cubic and hexagonal structure is preferential for hydrogen permeation resistance due to the presence of cubic phase with higher packing density in comparison to the hexagonal structure. After hydrogenation, no changes in phase composition were observed; however, a small amount of hydrogen is accumulated in the coatings. An increase of coating hardness and elastic modulus was observed after hydrogen exposure. Tribological tests reveal that hydrogenation leads to a decrease of the friction coefficient up to 20%–30%. The best value of 0.25 was reached for hydrogen exposed CrₓN coating deposited at 300 mPa.
Controlled ion bombardment is a popular method to fabricate desirable coating structures and modify their properties. Substrate biasing at high frequencies is a possible technique, which allows higher ion density at the substrate compared with DC current bias. Moreover, high ion energy along with controlled adatom mobility would lead to improved coating growth. This paper focuses on a similar type of study, where effects of coating growth and properties of DC magnetron-sputtered chromium nitride (CrxN) coatings at various substrate bias frequencies are discussed. CrxN coatings were deposited by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering on Inconel 718 and (100) silicon substrates at 110, 160 and 280 kHz frequency at low duty cycle. Coating microstructure and morphology were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scratch adhesion testing and nanoindentation. Results indicate a transformation of columnar into glassy structure of CrxN coatings with the substrate bias frequency increase. This transformation is attributed to preferential formation of the Cr2N phase at high frequencies compared with CrN at low frequencies. Increase in frequency leads to an increase in deposition rate, which is believed to be due to increase in plasma ion density and energy of the incident adatoms. An increase in coating hardness along with decrease in elastic modulus was observed at high frequencies. Scratch tests show a slight increase in coating adhesion, whereas no clear increase in coating roughness can be found with the substrate bias frequency.
Hydrogen degradation is a serious problem in industrial applications like power plants (boilers, turbines), marine structures, car and aircraft components, as it leads to failures as well as to deterioration of properties. Inconel 718 is one of the most commonly used materials for these applications. Different metal nitrides like TiN coatings have been deposited in past to prevent hydrogen degradation, which are also known for their high hardness and good wear resistance [1, 2]. However, reports on hydrogen degradation of CrN coatings, which shows better oxidation and corrosion resistance, higher temperature stability and lower friction coefficient than TiN [3, 4] has not been reported till now. Despite a lot of publications about CrN films, up to now the effect of hydrogenation on mechanical and tribological properties of CrN coatings is still not completely understood. In the current work CrxN coatings were deposited by Direct Current Magnetron Sputtering (dcMS) on Inconel 718 substrate at different chamber pressures and substrate voltages. Substrate voltage is one of the most important process parameters which determines the structure of the coating and the adhesion between substrate and coating. Simultaneously a study of the chamber pressure is also needed to understand the deposited structure and growth rate because at higher pressures the high number of argon atoms reduce the number of ionized ions available for the deposition leading to low deposition rates [5]. Gas-phase hydrogenation of the samples was performed at a temperature of 600° C and hydrogen pressure of 2 atm. It was found that CrxN coatings are resistant against hydrogen exposure as compared to uncoated surfaces. The results of changes in the mechanical, tribological properties and phase composition of the coatings after hydrogenation are discussed. Coating microstructure was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The mechanical properties of the coatings were characterized by means of nanoindentation and scratch test.