Tribological characterization of Ti-Si-N nano films prepared by reactive magnetic sputtering

Ti-Si-N nano films were deposited on 1Crl8Ni9Ti stainless steel by reactive magnetic sputtering. The silicon contents in the films were varied in a range of 0-19.4at%. The results show that crystallite size decreases with the increase of silicon content, and the microhardness of Ti-Si-N film increase with an certain addition of silicon, the maximum hardness value of films is 43.5 GPa with 9.6at% silicon content in Ti-Si-N film. The bonding strength of Ti-Si-N is improved compared to TiN film. Furthermore, friction coefficient and wear rate of the Ti-Si-N films decrease firstly and then increase with addition of silicon. It shows a much lower friction coefficient at elevated temperature conditions, however the wear rate increase remarkably.