Corrosion resistance of duplex and gradient CrNx coated H13 steel

Abstract The electrochemical behavior of H13 steel coated with duplex and gradient CrN x coatings deposited by cathodic arc deposition has been studied. The substrate material was coated with CrN by cathodic arc deposition technique. Duplex layers of CrN x , which normally include an interlayer approximately 100–200 nm of Cr under the main CrN coating, were prepared; gradient CrN x coating were produced with continuous elevated nitrogen pressure. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was applied to characterize the chemical composition, and the glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GAXRD) was used to examine the crystallographic structure. The potentiodynamic polarization was examined by Zahner IM6e electrochemical workstation in a 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 solution at ambient temperature, and the corrosive surface was detected by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was shown that the gradient coating could enhance the corrosion performance of CrN x coated H13 steel. The corrosion resistance improvement was not only attributed to the increase in thickness, but also to the internal microstructure and phase composition. Gradient CrN x coating produced in this work was proved to be particularly promising in terms of corrosion resistance, owing to its incontinuous pinholes and different composition: Cr, Cr 2 N in inner part and CrN in surface. The results showed that the gradient coating had an improved electrochemical performance than duplex CrN coating.