Microstructure, high-temperature corrosion and steam oxidation properties of Cr/CrN multilayer coatings prepared by magnetron sputtering

Abstract (Cr/CrN)n multilayer coatings were prepared on Zr-4 alloy using magnetron sputtering and effects of this multilayer architecture on the microstructure, mechanical properties, surface wettability, high-temperature corrosion and resistance to steam oxidation of the (Cr/CrN)n coating were studied in detail. The (Cr/CrN)n coating designed with a multilayer architecture had excellent high-temperature corrosion resistance. Steam oxidation experiments displayed that the (Cr/CrN)24 multilayer coating exhibited excellent steam oxidation resistance under high temperature of 1200 °C. Moreover, the oxidation mechanism of the Cr/CrN coating was also discussed intensively.