High temperature wettability and oxidation behavior of TiN, Ti–Al–N and Ti–Si–N PVD film

Abstract

In aluminium cutting and die casting, tools are exposed to Built UP Edge (BUE) and Built Up Layer (BUL) and erosion due to the frequent contact of the tool surface to the aluminum alloy, to oxidation due to high temperatures. For this reason, the susceptibility to reaction with liquid aluminum and stability of TiN, Ti–Al–N and Ti–Si–N films were investigated using wetting test, high temperature oxidation experiment and complementary differential scanning calorimetry. The results show that the type of chemical bond affects the surface tension, tool steel with metal bonds is most easily wetted, after being wetted and cooled by molten Al at 725 °C, the contact angle is approximately 0°. Because the maximum temperature of the experiment has reached the decomposition temperature of TiN film, therefore, the contact angle of TiN film with ionic bond is 35.3°, slightly larger than tool steel. However, there are complex ionic bond compounds Ti3AlN and covalent bond compounds Si3N4 in Ti–Al–N and Ti–Si–N films, which significantly reduce the wettability of the film with molten aluminum. The contact angles are 78° and 71°, respectively. During the oxidation process, due to Ti–Al–N and Ti–Si–N films contain Al and Si elements, the phase and morphology did not change until 800 °C, this indicates that the effects of different chemical bonds caused by alloying elements on oxidation resistance and wetting resistance have a similar relationship.