• Carneiro, Edgar Manuel Neto
• Vuchkov, Todor
• Carvalho, Sandra
• Ferreira, Jorge
• Andritschky, Martin
• Cavaleiro, Albano
• Parreira, Nuno M. G.

Abstract

The present work aims to study the impact of O and N addition on Cr-sputtered coatings on plastic (polycarbonate, PC) used in automobile parts, as a promisor alternative for auto part metallization, while eliminating the usage of toxic hexavalent chromium. The coatings were deposited using DC magnetron sputtering from a single pure Cr target in a reactive atmosphere (N 2 and/or O 2 ). The deposition of the coatings was performed maintaining the total pressure constant and close to 1 Pa by tuning Ar pressure while reactive gases were added. The target current density was kept at J W = 20 mA·cm −2 . Structural characterization revealed a mixture of α-Cr, δ-Cr, β-Cr 2 N, and CrN crystalline structures as well as amorphous oxides. The coating hardness ranged from 9 GPa for the CrON coating to 15 GPa for the CrN coating. All deposited coatings showed a particularly good interface adhesion; adjusting the amount of O and N made it possible to tune the optical properties of the Cr-based coatings as desired. The promising results open future industrialization of sputtered Cr-based coatings for automotive industries. ; This work was supported by COMPETE 2020 a Portuguese and European Union initiative through the Project POCI-01-0247-FEDER-042785, acronym “GREENCoat”. This research was sponsored by Norte2020, through European Social Fund (FSE), under the National Doctoral Program in “Surfaces Engineering and Protection”, NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000047. This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of Strategic Funding (co-financed via UIDB/00285/2020 and UIDB/04650/2020).

Topics

• Deposition
• density
• surface
• polymer
• amorphous
• chromium
• reactive
• hardness
• current density