Effect of Ti content on structure and mechanical properties of Cr-Ti-N films

Cr-Ti-N films are deposited on the surface of Ti6Al4V alloy by unbalanced multi-targets reactive magnetron sputtering. In this study, the effect of the Ti content on microstructure, hardness, modulus and tribological behaviours of Cr-Ti-N films are systematically investigated. The XRD shows that with the increasing of Ti content, the phase structure evolves from Cr + Cr2N + TiN -> amorphous -> FCC solid solution. The hardness and modulus of Cr-Ti-N films are increased by improving Ti content in the films and Cr32.5Ti24.6N42.9 film reaches maximum values of 25.8 and 362.7 GPa, respectively. The wear rate of the Cr-Ti-N films is gradually decreased with increasing Ti content and the Cr32.5Ti24.6N42.9 film decreases five times and 25 times than Cr50.7Ti10.1N39.2 and substrate, respectively.