Comparison in mechanical and tribological properties of CrTiAlMoN and CrTiAlN nano-multilayer coatings deposited by magnetron sputtering

Abstract

CrTiAlN and CrTiAlMoN nano-multilayer coatings were deposited by closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering. TiMoN and CrTiMoN nano-multilayer coatings with same Mo2N layer thickness were also prepared for comparison. The structure of these coatings is investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The mechanical and tribological properties were characterized and compared by nano-indentation and ball-on-disc test. It was found that these coatings were structured by fcc metal nitride phases (including CrN, TiN, AlN and Mo2N) and the preferred orientation changed from (111) to (200) with the increase of Mo content. The TEM results showed that the coatings exhibited typical columnar structure and nano-multilayer structure with modulation periods ranged from 3.2nm to 7.6nm. Among these coatings, CrTiAlMoN coatings presented the highest hardness, lowest coefficient of friction (COF) and wear rate. The hardness of these nano-multilayer coatings were determined by layer interfaces: TiN/Mo2N and AlN/Mo2N layer interface showed benefit on hardness enhancement while CrN/Mo2N layer interface led to a great hardness decrement. In comparison with the other as-deposited coatings, the low COF of CrTiAlMoN coatings was not only affected by Mo addition but also related to its oxidation behaviors.