Effects of deposition temperature on structure, residual stress and corrosion behavior of Cr/TiN/Ti/TiN films

Composite TiN film was prepared on AZ31 at four sets of different deposition temperatures. X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescent were employed to determine the structure, residual stress, thickness and chemical elements. A scratch tester with Rockwell C diamond styli and electrochemical workstation were used to evaluate the adhesion and corrosion behavior of the obtained film. The effects of deposition temperature on structure, residual stress, adhesion, thickness and corrosion behavior were investigated as well. The results show that the films are composed of TiN with (111), (200) and (222) planes, Ti with (002) plane, and Cr (110) plane. The maximum residual compressive stress is about 413.4 MPa, and the elements distribution is not uniform when the film deposited at 150 °C. With the increase of deposition temperature, the grain size and crystallinity increase, the thickness decreases, the residual stress decreases first and then increases, the film becomes more compact and has better corrosion resistance. However, when the deposition temperature is greater than 250 °C, the surface roughness and the thermal stress begin to increase, the bonding performance and the corrosion resistance also decrease.