Reinforced mechanical properties of plasma-sprayed Fe-based amorphous composite coatings by in-situ TiNx/TiOy

Ceramic particle-reinforced Fe-based amorphous coatings have received extensive attention due to their excel-lent strength and wear resistance. In this paper, TiNx/TiOy-enhanced Fe-based amorphous coatings were pre-pared by reactive plasma spraying technology, and the effect of eggshell-like TiNx/TiOy on the comprehensive mechanical properties of Fe-based amorphous coatings was systematically studied. The results showed that the hardness of the composite coating was significantly higher than that of the amorphous single-phase coating. Moreover, indentation experiments showed that TiNx/TiOy effectively confined crack growth in the amorphous phase. Though the bonding strength of the composite coating was lower than that of the pure amorphous coating, but still maintained a high bonding force of 20.68 MPa. Through the wear experiment, it was found that the wear scar of the composite coatings appeared plastic deformation, the friction coefficient and wear mass loss were both greatly reduced, and the optimal wear performance appeared in the composite coating with 15% Ti addition. In addition, SEM, EDS analysis, and the first-principles simulation results demonstrated the good bonding between Ti-containing compounds and Fe-based alloys.