Reactive Plasma Spray for the Deposition of Ti/TiN Coatings: A Comparative Compositional Study by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)

This paper reports the result of a study aimed at determining the composition of Ti/TiN coatings deposited by reactive plasma spray (RPS). The coatings were obtained by spraying titanium powder in a low pressure N2/Ar atmosphere. The resulting film has a variable nitrogen content in the form of titanium nitrides, depending on experimental parameters such as the gas partial pressure, total pressure, distance sample-source, etc. The determination of the composition of the film can be obtained in principle by various methods. Here we have performed a comparative compositional study using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. We found that the two techniques provide very similar results and hence either one can be used for the compositional characterization of these coatings.