Comparative Insights into Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Zr/Al-Modified TiN/TiCN Multilayer Coatings

The development of multilayer coatings based on titanium carbides and nitrides remains one of the most active areas in materials science, owing to their ability to markedly enhance wear resistance and extend the service life of machine components. Particular interest is currently focused on tailoring conventional TiN/TiCN architectures through alloying metal additions. In this study, the tribological and mechanical performance of aluminum- and zirconium-doped TiN/TiCN multilayer coatings deposited by direct-current magnetron sputtering onto 41Cr4 steel was investigated. The morphology, elemental distribution, and phase constitution of the multilayer coatings were examined. It is shown that increasing the number of bilayers from two to four in TiN/TiCN–based multilayer coatings leads to improved tribomechanical characteristics. It was determined that zirconium provides a more pronounced beneficial effect than aluminum. The four-bilayer TiZrN/TiZrCN coating simultaneously exhibited the lowest coefficient of friction (0.11) and wear rate (10−6 mm3 m−1 N−1) at a hardness of 16.4 GPa.