Factors governing the mechanical behaviour of CrSiN coatings Combined nanoindentation testing and transmission electron microscopy》.pdfVIP

Materials Science and Engineering A 534 (2012) 297–308 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Materials Science and Engineering A j o u r n a l h o m e p ag e: w w w. elsev /locate/msea Factors governing the mechanical behaviour of CrSiN coatings: Combined nanoindentation testing and transmission electron microscopy P.C. Wo a,∗ , P.R. Munroe a , Z. Li b , Z.-T. Jiang c , Z.H. Xie d , Z.F. Zhou d,e , K.Y. Li e a Electron Microscope Unit, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia b Southeast University, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing, PR China c School of Engineering and Energy, Murdoch University, WA 6150, Australia d School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University,Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia e Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: A direct link between the microstructure and mechanical properties of CrSiN coatings with varying Si con- Received 7 September 2011 tents was established by examining their microstructural evolution and deformation behaviour, enabled Accepted 11 November 2011 by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. A transformation from a columnar-grained struc- Available online 1 December 2011 ture, in the binary compound, to a nanocomposite structure, consisting of CrN nanocrystallites embedded in an amorphous matrix, was observed in the coating having a Si content of 28.5 at.%. The columnar- Keyword