Nitrogen Effect on Corrosion Resistance of Ion Beam SputteredNanocrystalline Zirconium Nitride Films

This research has studied the effect of nj/ (n2+ar) flow rate ratio (f (n2)) on the microstructure and anticorrosiveproperty of zirconium nitride (zrn) films deposited on aisi stainless steel (ss) 304 substrates. zrn films were depositedusing ion beam sputtering technique and their corrosion resistance has been investigated via electrochemicaltest using 0.5 m h2s04 solution. the thickness of the films decreased with increasing of n2 flow rate. results of xraydiffraction (xrd) showed that all the films had a preferred crystalline orientation which changed from [220]axis at low f(n 2) to [ill] axis at high f(n 2) . the electrochemical test revealed that the corrosion resistance increasedwith increasing (ill) 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 increasingfilm thickness.