Effect of Bilayer Variation on the Properties of CrN/CrAlN Multilayer Coatings Produced by DC Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

In this study, CrN/CrAlN multilayer coating with different periods (Ʌ = 1, 2, 3, 4) were deposited on stainless steel (90CrMoV8) and silicon Si (100) samples by DC magnetron sputtering. The results obtained exhibited that the increasing of the number of periods considerably improves the properties of multilayer coatings. All CrN/CrAlN multilayer coatings have a dense columnar microstructure, and the surface morphology showed a pyramidal shape with nanopores. The coating hardness and Young’s modulus of the CrN/CrAlNmultilayer coating increases with the increase of bilayers number and reach 40 and 392 GPa respectively. Friction coefficient in seawater environment was calculated and it show that the increase in bilayer number decreases friction contact and reduce the friction coefficient. Also, wear resistance improves with increasing interfaces and increasing hardness.