Effect of Gas Ratio on Tribological and Corrosion Properties of Ion Beam Sputter Deposited TiN Coatings

Titanium nitride thin films were grown on 304 stainless steel substrates at various nitrogen/argon flow ratios by ion beam sputtering (IBS) technique. The current research is a follow up study on the influence of gas ratio on structural and corrosion properties in the TiN coated 304 stainless steel. Film structural identification of phases was performed using X-ray diffractometry (XRD). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was employed to study surface morphology and also elemental analysis of samples after corrosion test was conducted by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Through our results, we showed that the films deposited under an Ar: N2 ratio of 50(sccm):7(sccm) exhibited a TiN(200) preferred orientation. The corrosion behavior of the samples was evaluated by potentiodynamic polarization test in 3.5% NaCl solution. A critical gas ratio was found at which the corrosion resistant was highest. The correlation between corrosion resistance, structural and surface morphology was examined.