DEPOSITION AND PROPERTY CHARACTERISATION OF TaN COATINGS DEPOSITED WITH DIFFERENT NITROGEN CONTENTS DEPOSITION AND PROPERTY CHARACTERISATION OF TaN COATINGS DEPOSITED WITH DIFFERENT NITROGEN CONTENTS

Abstract

This work focused on the study of the influence of nitrogen content on the microstructure, chemical composition, mechanical and tribological properties of  TaN coatings deposited on 420 stainless steel and silicon samples (100) using the  magnetron sputtering technique. For the deposition of the TaN coatings an argon/nitrogen atmosphere was used, varying the flux of nitrogen between 12% and 25%. For coating’s characterization, Scanning electron microscopy, Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Atomic force microscopy, X-Ray diffraction, Microraman spectroscopy, Micro-hardness tester and a ball on disc tribometer were used. A refining of the columnar structure of the coatings, accompanied by a decrease in their thickness with the increased nitrogen content was observed. Initially, fcc-TaN (111) cubic phase growth was observed, this phase was changed to the fcc-TaN (200) above N2 12%. For contents greater than N2 18%, another nitrogen-rich phase was formed and the system tended to amorphicity, particularly for coating with N2 25% content. TaN-1 sample deposited with N2 12% in the gas mixture presented the highest micro-hardness value of 21.3GPa and the lowest friction coefficient and wear rate of 0.02 and 1.82x10-7 (mm3/Nm), respectively. From the obtained results, an important relationship between the microstructural, mechanical and tribological properties of the coated samples and their nitrogen content was observed.