Corrosion properties of carbon ions implanted chromium coating prepared on CSS-42L aerospace bearing steel

In this work, carbon ions implanted chromium coating deposited on CSS-42L aerospace bearing steel by using the filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition- metal evaporation vacuum arc duplex technique had been investigated. Film structure and properties after carbon implantation have been characterized by glancing incident XRD, AFM, SEM, TEM, AES, XPS and potentiodynamic polarization test. Carbon ions implanted chromium coating showed an increase in the pitting potential, promoting higher pitting corrosion resistance. The improvement was attributed to the reduction of surface roughness, the irradiated amorphous phase, the inert graphitic solid state carbon and the formation of nanocrystalline Cr2C and CrC.