The structure and mechanical properties of multilayer nanocrystalline TiN/ZrN coatings obtained by vacuum-arc deposition

Abstract

TiN/ZrN multilayered condensates on BK-8 carbide tips substrates (62 HRC) were produced by the vacuumarc deposition technique, using Ti and Zr plasma flows in reactive nitrogen gas medium with working pressure of 6.6·10–1 Pa. The TiN/ZrN multilayered condensates consist of TiN and ZrN sublayers, which have a thickness of ~100 nm, controlled by the processing parameters of the used deposition technique. The obtained coatings have hardness of 45 GPa and Young’s modulus of 320 GPa. The obtained results show that mechanical properties of such multilayered composites are considerably improved in comparison to those for the single-component coatings, TiN and ZrN. The dependence of hardness and Young’s modulus of the composites on sublayer thickness within a range of 100 nm was determined. The investigated structure and improved mechanical properties of the TiN/ZrN multilayered condensates would be very good platform for finding their industrial application, such as hard coatings with different purposes.

Keywords

• Multilayers
• Nanohardness
• Multicomponent coatings
• PVD method