Corrosion and Tribological Behaviour of BN Thin Films Deposited Using Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Boron nitride coatings were synthesised on 316L stainless steel substrates through the radio frequency magnetron sputtering from a target made of hexagonal boron nitride. The process of deposition was conducted in three separate N2 and Ar system mixing regimes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques investigated the microstructure morphology and composition of the BN films at varying ratio of N2 and Ar plasma. This research aimed to examine the effects of changing the N2 gas ratio on the structure and structural morphology of c-BN coatings. Using QAr / QN2-5/1 ratios, an increased consistency of the microstructure and further c-BN step formation suggest a fundamental technique for producing superior quality cubic boron nitride films. The electrochemical corrosion test and mechanical analysis was performed to study corrosion and tribological behaviour of the BN coating, and the results showed more improvement in corrosion and tribilogical behaviour in case of BN2 regime. The BN2 regime showed a maximum corrosion resistance of around 1.114 mpy (miles per year). The young's modulus of 346Gpa in magnitude in case of BN2 thin film was found to be higher as compared to base material and other two thin films.