Nitrogen Effect on Corrosion Resistance of Ion Beam Sputtered Nanocrystalline Zirconium Nitride Films

This research has studied the effect of N2/ (N2+Ar) flow rate ratio (F (N2)) on the microstructure and anticorrosive property of zirconium nitride (ZrN) films deposited on AISI stainless steel (SS) 304 substrates. ZrN films were de- posited using ion beam sputtering technique and their corrosion resistance has been investigated via electrochemical test using 0.5 M H2SO4 solution. The thickness of the films decreased with increasing of N2 flow rate. Results of X- ray diffraction (XRD) showed that all the films had a preferred crystalline orientation which changed from [220] axis at low F(N2) to [111] axis at high F(N2). The electrochemical test revealed that the corrosion resistance in- creased with increasing (111) preferred orientation. Furthermore, micrographs obtained by scanning electron mi- croscopy ( SEM) indicated that damages on the sample surface due to corrosive agent attacks, may reduce with in- creasing film thickness.