Tribology and Electrochemical Corrosion Properties of TiC Thin Film Coatings Grown by RF Magnetron Sputtering

Titanium alloys have found application in many sectors and are regarded as one of the most valuable materials of the 21^st century. Although titanium alloys have many promising properties, the tribo-corrosion properties still happen to be a limiting factor. In this research study, radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering was used to deposit refractory ceramic (TiC) thin films coatings on the surface of titanium alloys in order to enhance and improve the wear and corrosion resistance properties. Different combinations of the sputtering process parameters were used for the deposition process. The varied sputtering process parameters were RF Power, sputtering time, and temperature. The macroscratch, microscratch (adhesion test) and, corrosion properties of the coatings were investigated using the pin on-disk wear test, micro-scratch tribometer, and electrochemical potentiostat, respectively. The results show improvement in the wear and corrosion properties of the coated samples. The results also revealed the influence of the sputtering process parameters on the evolving wear and corrosion properties of the coated samples. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to capture the wear scar and analyses the failure mode of the coatings.