Short Term Oxidation Behavior of Si-Free Low-Cr Alloy Sputtered Coating

A sputtered coating of a low-Cr alloy without Si was deposited on the cast alloy with the same composition. The short term (100 h) oxidation behavior of the sputtered coating and the cast alloy was evaluated in air at 800 °C. The results indicated that the sputtered coating exhibited a higher oxidation resistance than the cast alloy. It was found that the mass gain of the cast alloy increased continuously with oxidation time and was higher than that of the sputtered coating, which demonstrated only a slight increase in mass gain with oxidation time after 5 h thermal exposure. During the initial thermal exposure of 0.5 h, the oxide scale formed on the cast alloy consisted of Fe₂O₃ and (Fe,Co,Cr)₃O₄ spinel with a small amount of Cr. However, (Fe,Co,Cr)₃O₄ spinel and Fe₂O₃ were thermally grown on the sputtered coating. After oxidation for 100 h, the oxide scale formed on the cast alloy consisted of Co₃O₄ and (Fe,Co)₃O₄ with internal oxide of Cr, while a double-layer oxide consisting of an outer (Fe,Co,Cr)₃O₄ spinel layer and an inner Cr₂O₃ layer was developed on the sputtered coating.