Mechanical and corrosion properties of dc magnetron sputtered Al/Cr multilayers

Mechanical and corrosion properties of Al/Cr multilayer coatings deposited by dc magnetron sputtering are investigated and compared to pure Al and Cr coatings. The objective of this study is to increase the mechanical properties of sacrificial Al-based coatings. The results indicate that mechanical and corrosion properties depend on the architecture organisation. The reduction of the layer thickness allows an increase of the coating hardness. The nanolayer architecture leads to a “hard and tough” material compared to the other architectures. Moreover, the intrinsic corrosion resistance is enhanced, as the corrosion and the pitting corrosion potentials are progressively shifted towards positive values. The nanolayer coating presents the highest intrinsic corrosion resistance but multilayer and nanolayer Al/Cr coatings become nobler than the steel substrate. The corrosion resistance of the coated steel is then strongly dependent on the microscopic coating defects which act as preferential pathways for the corrosive solution. So the nanolayer architecture organisation improves the mechanical properties but does not permit to conserve the sacrificial behaviour of the aluminium based coating, which is harmful for the corrosion protection of coated steel.