Kirnbauer, A., Kolozsvári, S., & Mayrhofer, P. H. (2022, November 9). Influence of Al-content on structure, mechanical properties and thermal stability of reactively sputtered AlTaTiVZr high-entropy nitride coatings [Conference Presentation]. AVS 68th International Symposium and Exhibition, Pittsburgh, United States of America (the).
high entropy ceramics; thermal stability; mechanical properties
en
Abstract:
In the field of materials research, a novel alloying concept, so-called high-entropy alloys (HEAs), has gained particular attention within the last decade. These alloys contain 5 or more elements in equiatomic or near-equiatomic composition. Properties, like hardness, strength, and toughness can be attributed to the specific elemental distribution and are often superior to those of conventional alloys. In parallel to HEAs also high-entropy ceramics (HECs) moved into in the focus of research. These consist of a solid solution of 5 or more binary nitrides, carbides, oxides, or borides. Within this work, we investigate the structure and, mechanical properties of thin films based on the high-entropy concept, with particular emphasis on the thermal stability, dependent on the Al content in AlTaTiVZr thin films. Therefore, AlTaTiVZr nitride coatings were reactively sputtered in a lab-scale sputter deposition facility using a single powder-metallurgically produced composite target and Al cubes placed along the racetrack to increase the Al content within the coatings. The coatings in as-deposited state show a fine-columnar growth and crystallise in a single-phase face-centred cubic (fcc) structure. The hardness of our coatings in as-deposited state is ~32.8 GPa and relatively independent on the Al-content. We studied the influence of the Al content on the thermal stability by investigating the structural evolution of our coatings by DSC and powder X-ray diffraction, as well as nanoindentation upon vacuum annealing. The study reveals a distinct influence of the Al-content on the decomposition of the solid solution into an fcc-matrix and Al-rich domains.