Influence of post-deposition annealing temperature on morphological, mechanical and electrochemical properties of CrN/CrAlN multilayer coating deposited by cathodic arc evaporation- physical vapor deposition process

CrN/CrAlN multilayer coatings were deposited on AISI 304 stainless steel substrates utilizing the CAE-PVD process. Then the coatings were annealed at 400, 500, 600, and 700 °C for a duration of 1 h in a vacuum condition. The phases identification, surface morphology, mechanical properties, adhesion, and corrosion behavior of the coating before and after post-deposition annealing treatment were characterized using XRD, SEM, nanoindentation test, Rockwell-C adhesion measurements, and EIS assays, respectively. The results indicated that with increasing post-deposition annealing treatment temperature, the phase structures of the multilayer coating vary from a face-centered cubic CrN to a hexagonal Cr 2 N. Moreover, annealing resulted, in the decrease of the macroparticles on the coating surface decreased. The hardness of the multilayer coating decreased from 19 GPa to 17 GPa, which can be ascribed to the increase in crystallite size and the decrease in the residual stress and annihilation of defects as the temperature increased to 700 °C. Based on the EIS results, the sample annealed at 700 °C had the highest corrosion resistance among other samples, which can be attributed to a decrease in the porosities as corrosion initiation sites, the existence of Cr 2 N as corrosion resistance phase, and an increase in the crystallite size of the multilayer coating. • Comprehensive evaluation on the effect of annealing on CrN/CrAlN multilayer coating. • Significant decrease in residual stress and macrostrain. • Crystallite growth resulted in the decrease in the hardness of the coating by 10%. • Enhancement of electrochemical properties through post-deposition annealing.