Improvement of Corrosion and Wear Resistance of CoCrNiSi0.3 Medium-Entropy Alloy by Sputtering CrN Film

Yi-Chun Chang; Kaifan Lin; Ju-Lung Ma; Han-Fu Huang; Shih-Hsien Chang; Hsin-Chih Lin

doi:10.3390/ma16041482

Improvement of Corrosion and Wear Resistance of CoCrNiSi_0.3 Medium-Entropy Alloy by Sputtering CrN Film

Materials (Basel). 2023 Feb 10;16(4):1482. doi: 10.3390/ma16041482.

Authors

Yi-Chun Chang¹, Kaifan Lin¹, Ju-Lung Ma¹, Han-Fu Huang², Shih-Hsien Chang², Hsin-Chih Lin¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
² Department of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan.

Abstract

In this study, Co, Cr, and Ni were selected as the equal-atomic medium entropy alloy (MEA) systems, and Si was added to form CoCrNiSi_0.3 MEA. In order to further improve its wear and corrosion properties, CrN film was sputtered on the surface. In addition, to enhance the adhesion between the soft CoCrNiSi_0.3 substrate and the super-hard CrN film, a Cr buffer layer was pre-sputtered on the CoCrNiSi_0.3 substrate. The experimental results show that the CrN film exhibits a columnar grain structure, and the film growth rate is about 2.022 μm/h. With the increase of sputtering time, the increase in CrN film thickness, and the refinement of columnar grains, the wear and corrosion resistance improves. Among all CoCrNiSi_0.3 MEAs without and with CrN films prepared in this study, the CoCrNiSi_0.3 MEA with 3 h-sputtered CrN film has the lowest wear rate of 2.249 × 10^-5 mm³·m^-1·N^-1, and the best corrosion resistance of I_corr 19.37 μA·cm^-2 and R_p 705.85 Ω·cm².

Keywords: CrN thin film; corrosion; magnetron sputtering; medium-entropy alloy; wear.

Grants and funding

MOST111-2224-E002-007/Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan