Influence of hydrogen incorporation and coating thickness on the corrosion resistance of carbon based coatings deposited by magnetron sputtering

Abstract Hydrogenated and non-hydrogenated carbon based coatings with two different thicknesses (300 nm and 1 μm) were deposited on 316L stainless steel by magnetron sputtering and the coating morphology, structure and corrosion resistance were evaluated. The morphological and structural characterizations were performed by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy respectively, while the corrosion resistance was evaluated by potentiodynamic test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results revealed that hydrogenated coatings present a more protective behavior and the variations in coating thickness did not promote changes in the electrochemical behavior.