Deposição e caracterização de filmes finos de nitreto de titânio para aplicações decorativas

Abstract

This work studies the deposition of titanium nitride (TiN) thin films on stainless steel AISI 304 substrate for decorative applications. The films studied here are composed of a layer of Ti working as an interlayer between the substrate and the TiN thin film, creating a system substrate/Ti/TiN. The BIAS applied on the substrate during the deposition of the Ti interlayer and the deposition temperature of the films between 25°C and 200°C were studied. The films were deposited by a PVD cathodic arc evaporation technique in a reactive deposition process, working with Ti cathodes and argon and nitrogen as gases. The equipment utilized for these depositions was an industrial PVD coating equipment. The chemical composition of the TiN films was analyzed by glow-discharge optical emission spectroscopy technique (GD-OES) and the crystalline structure by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the microstructure and thickness by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, the hardness at the nanoscale of the films was measured and scratch analyses were made to determine the critical load for the beginning of plastic deformation of the films. The results show that both analyzed process parameters significantly affect the properties and characteristics of the films, especially on the oxygen contamination content and the critical load for plastic deformation. Furthermore, it was also observed that the film deposited at 200°C presents a significant change on its crystallographic orientation and chemical composition compared with those deposited at lower temperatures. As a result of this research, it was possible to determine the optimized process conditions for the deposition of TiN thin films for decorative purposes, enabling the development and application of this technology in industrial scale.