Corrosive response for Ti-Si-C-N coating as a function of applied power

The present study demonstrates a detailed analysis of the electrochemical behavior of the nc-Ti-Si-C-N nanocomposite coating as a function of applied power (400 W, 450 W, 500 W and 550 W). Employing the structural and chemical analysis by XRD, XPS and TEM techniques, it was possible to determine that this coating presents a structure formed by an amorphous zone (a-SiCN) and nanocrystals (nc-TiSiCN). The vibrational analysis using the FTIR technique indicated that the Ti-Si-C-N phase increases as a function of applied power, obtaining an increase of 48 % compared between the coatings obtained with 400 W and 550 W power. The observed corrosion behavior showed that the coating obtained with a power of 550 W presented a decrease of 42 % for the corrosion rate compared with the coating obtained with 400 W and showed a decrease of 98 % for the corrosion rate when compared with uncoated HSS steel. All results obtained in this research determined that the nc-TiSiCN coating obtained with 550 W offers the best set of structural and electrochemical properties, and would serve as an excellent alternative to contemporary protective surfaces on industrial devices exposed to a corrosive environment.