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 deposited 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 increase 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 increased with increasing (111) preferred orientation. Furthermore, micrographs obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that damages on the sample surface due to corrosive agent attacks may reduce with increasing film thickness.