Abstract
Ti/TiAlV/TiAlV(N) coatings were deposited by D.C magnetron sputtering technique. This experiment was carried out on 316L stainless steel substrates, and it was produced varying the working pressure, in an environment composed by a mixture of Ar/N2. While Ti and TiAlV layers were produced at a constant pressure, TiAlV(N) layers were grown at 0.6, 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0 Pa, for samples M1, M2, M3 and M4, respectively. After the production, morphological, compositional and structural properties of coatings were studied using techniques as x-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Next, mechanical and tribological properties such as hardness, Young’s modulus, coefficient of friction, and adherence were evaluated, using nanoindentation, scratch test and ball on disc methods. XRD analysis evidenced that coatings crystallized in a salt rock FCC structure, and the crystallite size tended to increase with the increase of pressure. The XPS analysis allowed to demonstrate the presence of the doublets corresponding to metallic aluminum. Titanium was also found as well as the presence of oxygen as an oxidizing element of the coating.  Regarding to the morphological analysis, it was observed an increase of the roughness when the coatings were grown, compared with the stainless substrates; moreover, no significant influence of the small pressure variation was observed on properties as hardness, coefficient of friction, and critical load.
Highlights
Hard coatings have been widely studied for several technological applications, in order to increase the mechanical and tribological performance (Veprek, 2010) where cutting and forming tools, extrusion molds and machine pieces are involved (Yang, 2009) (Bobzin, 2006)
It is necessary to consider that TiAlVN is formed from a solid solution of the titanium nitride (TiN), AlN and VN compounds, which lattice parameters are 4.24 Å (Carrasco, 2002), 3.11 Å (Nilsson, 2016) and 4.13 Å (Wang, 2016), respectively
Considering these aspects, and that Ti is the metallic element that is found in a greater proportion within the TiAlVN compound, the latter must be formed from the incorporation of small amounts of Al and V atoms into the TiN lattice
Summary
Hard coatings have been widely studied for several technological applications, in order to increase the mechanical and tribological performance (Veprek, 2010) where cutting and forming tools, extrusion molds and machine pieces are involved (Yang, 2009) (Bobzin, 2006). Titanium nitride (TiN) is, perhaps, the most used material for hard coatings, due to its mechanical and tribological properties. These highlighted properties give to this material a great resistance to the critical conditions, generated during the tools or machine pieces exposition to industrial or biological environments; several shortcomings have been identified in TiN coated materials. Other option consists in including Al, forming compounds as TiAlN coatings that, compared to TiN coatings have exhibited a better wear resistance, high oxidation temperature and high binding force (Kumar, 2015).
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