Improvement of Electrochemical Surface Properties in Steel Substrates Using a Nanostructured CrN/AlN Multilayer Coating

Abstract

Improvement of corrosion properties on AISI D3 steel surfaces coated with [CrN/AlN]n multilayered system deposited for various periods (Λ) via magnetron sputtering has been studied in this work exhaustively. For practical effects compared were the latter properties with CrN and AlN single layers deposited with the same conditions as the multilayered systems. The coatings were characterized in terms of crystal phase; chemical composition, micro-structural, and electrochemical properties by x-ray diffractometry, energy dispersive x-ray, Fourier transforming infrared spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Tafel polarization curves, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Corrosion evolution was observed via optical microscopy. Results from x-ray diffractometry analysis revealed that the crystal structure of [CrN/AlN]n multilayered coatings has an NaCl-type lattice structure and hexagonal structure (wurtzite-type) for CrN and AlN, respectively, i.e., it was made non-isostructural multilayered. The best behavior was obtained by the multilayered period: Λ = 60 nm (50 bilayers), showing the maximum corrosion resistance (polarization resistance of 1.18 KΩ, and corrosion rate of 1.02 mpy). Those results indicated an improvement of anticorrosive properties, compared to the CrN/AlN multilayer system with 1 bilayer at 98 and 80%, respectively. Furthermore, the corrosion resistance of steel AISI D3 is improved beyond 90%. These improvement effects in multilayered coatings could be attributed to the number of interfaces that act as obstacles for the inward and outward diffusions of ion species, generating an increment in the energy or potential required for translating the corrosive ions across the coating/substrate interface. Moreover, the interface systems affect the means free path on the ions toward the metallic substrate, due to the decreasing of the defects presented in the multilayered coatings.