Toughness enhancement in highly NbN-alloyed Ti-Al-N hard coatings

Obtaining high hardness combined with enhanced toughness represents one of the current challenges in material design of hard ceramic protective coatings. In this work, we combine experimental and ab initio density functional theory (DFT) analysis of the mechanical properties of Ti-Al-Nb-N coatings to validate the results of previous theoretical investigations predicting enhanced toughness in TiAlN-based systems highly alloyed (>25 at. %) with nitrides of pentavalent VB group elements Nb, Ta, and V. As-deposited Ti1-x-yAlxNbyN coatings (y = 0 ÷ 0.61) exhibit single phase cubic sodium chloride (B1) structure identified as TiAl(Nb)N solid solutions. The highest hardness, ∼32.5 ± 2 GPa, and the highest Young's modulus, ∼442 GPa, are obtained in Nb-free Ti0.46Al0.54N exhibiting pronounced 111 growth-orientation. Additions of Nb in the coatings promote texture evolution toward 200. Nanoindentation measurements demonstrate that alloying TiAlN with NbN yields significantly decreased elastic stiffness, from 442 to ∼358 ÷ 389 GPa, while the hardness remains approximately constant (between 28 ± 2 and 31 ± 3 GPa) for all Nb contents. DFT calculations and electronic structure analyses reveal that alloying dramatically reduces shear resistances due to enhanced d-d second-neighbor metallic bonding while retaining strong metal-N bonds which change from being primarily ionic (TiAlN) to more covalent (TiAlNbN) in nature. Overall, Nb substitutions are found to improve ductility of TiAlN-based alloys at the cost of slight losses in hardness, equating to enhanced toughness. [Display omitted]