Highly Corrosion Resistant and Sandwich-like Si3N4/Cr-CrNx/Si3N4 Coatings Used for Solar Selective Absorbing Applications

Highly corrosion resistant, layer-by-layer nano structured Si3N4/Cr-CrNx/Si3N4 coatings were deposited on aluminum substrate by DC/RF magnetron sputtering. Corrosion resistance experiments were performed in 0.5, 1.0, 3.0, and 5.0 wt NaCl salt spray at 35 degrees C for 168 h. Properties of the coatings were comprehensively investigated in terms of optical property, surface morphology, microstructure, elemental valence state, element distribution, and potentiodynamic polarization. UV-vis-near-IR spectrophotometer and FTIR measurements show that the change process in optical properties of Si3N4/Cr-CrNx/Si3N4/Al coatings can be divided into three stages: a rapid active degradation stage, a steady passivation stage, and a transpassivation degradation stage. With the increase in the concentration of NaCl salt spray, solar absorptance and thermal emittance experienced a slight degradation. SEM images reveal that there is an increase in surface defects, such as microcracks and holes and-cracks. XRD and TEM measurements indicate that the phase structure changed partially and the content of CrOx and Al2O3 has increased. Auger electron spectroscopy shows that the elements of Cr, N, and O have undergone a minor diffusion. Electrochemical polarization curves show that the as-deposited Si3N4/Cr-CrNx/Si3N4/Al coatings have excellent corrosion resistance of 3633.858 k Omega, while after corroding in 5.0 wt % NaCl salt spray for 168 h the corrosion resistance dropped to 13.759 k Omega. However, these coatings still have an outstanding performance of high solar absorptance of 0.924 and low thermal emittance of 0.090 after corroding in 3.0 wt % NaCl salt spray for 120 h. Thus, the Si3N4/Cr-CrNx/Si3N4/Al coating is a good choice for solar absorber coatings applied in the high-saline environment.