Effects of Hydrogen Ion Implantation on TiC-C Coating of Stainless Steel

Titanium carbide coatings are widely used as various wear-resistant material. The hydrogen erosion resistance of TiC-C films and the effect of hydrogen participation on TiC-C films were studied. Seventy-five percent TiC-C films are prepared on stainless steel surface by using ion mixing, where TiC-C films are deposited by rf magnetron sputtering followed by argon ion bombardment. The samples are then submitted to hydrogen ion implantation at 1.2 × 10−3 Pa. Characterization for the 75% TiC-C films was done with SIMS, XRD, AES, and XPS. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) was used to analyze hydrogen concentration variation with depth, X-Ray diffraction (XRD) was used to identify the phases, and Auger electron spectra (AES) as well as X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) were used to check the effects of hydrogen on shifts of chemical bonding states of C and Ti in the TiC-C films. It is found that TiC-C films on stainless steel surface can prevent hydrogen from entering stainless steel.