Preliminary Study of Zirconium Carbide Ceramic Deposition on Austenitic Stainless Steel by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Abstract

Coating Zirconium Carbide (ZrC) on the stainless steel (SS) will increase the corrosion resistance of SS which suffer from the intergranular attacks during operation as construction materials in reactors. ZrC coating have been partially deposited on Austenitic 316L SS by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) at 800°C temperature substrate with constant oxygen flow injection of 40 sccm (Standard Cubic Centimeters per Minute), chamber pressure around 229-244 mTorr and 105 the numbers of laser shots. The sample was analyzed using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Microscope Optic (MO), Scanning Electron Microscope – Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscope (SEM-EDS), and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to characterize the phase, morphology, thickness of the films and surface topography. The results showed that the thickness of the thin film around 4.93-8.10 µm with 49.6 nm surface roughness. The film surface was very smooth. The present of Zr and C was detected in SEM & EDS results but not appeared in XRD pattern, possibly due to diminish tension of the thin films on the substrates caused by low lattice mismatch between ZrC and Austenitic 316L SS substrate. Furthermore, ZrO2 phase has been found on the substrate which is predicted because of the interaction between ZrC target and oxygen background gas.