High-Temperature Oxidation of CrN/ZrN Multilayer Coatings

Multilayer nitride coatings provide some of the best performance when in their use for the production of metalworking tools. In this work, vacuum-arc plasma-assisted deposited multilayer ZrN/CrN coatings with different numbers of constituent layers were characterized for high-temperature oxidization in air using weighing, confocal and scanning electron microscopy and synchrotron XRD. Oxidizing at 300 degrees C did not deteriorate the coating surfaces, while higher temperatures caused surface deterioration and oxidation accompanied by cracking, delamination and considerable mass gains. The coating with higher number of thinner layers showed higher oxidation resistance due to more prominent oxygen barrier effect.