Improvement in Adhesion of Sputtered TiB₂ Nano-Compostite Coatings onto High Speed Steel by a Chromium Interlayer

Abstract

This work addresses at the development of the use of interlayer of different materials for TiB₂ coatings with increased adhesion to the substrate and retained high hardness. Ti and Cr were deposited on stationary high speed steel and silicon wafer substrates by magnetron sputtering as an interlayer material. The resultant coatings were evaluated with respect to fundamental properties such as structure, coating roughness, hardness, modulus and adhesion. It was found that the adhesion of resultant TiB₂ coatings was increased tremendously with Cr interlayer, whilst the hardness was slightly increased.