Thermogravimetric and in situ SEM characterisation of the oxidation phenomena of protective nanocomposite nitride films deposited on steel

The lifetime of TiN coatings is often limited by its poor resistance to high temperatures. For an optimized addition of silicon, both mechanical and physico-chemical properties are enhanced, owing to the formation of a nanocomposite structure. In this study, pure Ti and TiSi (80/20) targets were arc-evaporated to produce hard, single-layered coatings. Magnetron sputtered SiNx films were also synthesized for a comparison purpose. nocomposite structure was determined by XRD and TEM, and its efficiency regarding the mechanical properties was confirmed by nanohardness measurements. Through thermogravimetric experiments it is shown that in isothermal and dynamic conditions, the chemical stability inherent to SiNx controls the oxidation behaviour of TiSiN. However, in thermal cycling conditions TiSiN withstand efficiently temperature variations whereas SiNx does not. m of this study is to understand the role of SiNx on the oxidation of the TiSiN nanocomposite film. For this purpose, an in situ approach of the oxidation phenomena is detailed, based on experiments performed in an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) operating in controlled pressure mode up to 1000 °C. ESEM, used in real-time oxidative conditions, has been proved to be an efficient tool to characterise the mechanism of degradation. The successive steps of the attack throughout the in situ oxidation process are as follow: oxidation first initiates at coating defects (open pores and droplets), then spreads to the whole surface. The whole flaking of the film that is observed at the microscopic scale during the cooling step proves the poor thermal fatigue resistance of SiNx. This strong propensity to cracking is explained on the basis of thermo-mechanical considerations. The nanocomposite structure thus combines the chemical stability inherent to the SiNx matrix with the beneficial thermo-mechanical properties associated to TiN nanograins.