Corrosion protection and mechanical performance of SiO₂ films deposited via PECVD on OT59 brass

To evaluate the corrosion performance and nano‐mechanical behaviour of a brass substrate covered by different thick SiO₂ layers deposited by means of plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) technique.

The comparison between laboratory and “industrial” objects revealed a very good corrosion behaviour and good mechanical performance of both of them: in particular it was possible to modulate the surface treatment to solve various problems from the industrial point of view.

It was possible to reduce the Cu migration into the SiO₂ coating during the PECVD deposition at a negligible level and to control it by the deposition; further, the nano‐indentation tests revealed the great utility of the coating annealing in obtaining a significant improvement of the mechanical properties of the coated objects.

Even if some industrial problems were solved (minimization of the presence of the coating defects and transparency of the coatings), some on the layer hardness (anti‐wear behaviour of the industrial objects) has to be better investigated and possibly solved.

The work reports a deposition process that is carried out industrially over a two year period.

This research reports a PECVD process realized on industrial objects: the originality is in the reached corrosion and mechanical performances that made it possible to realize a satisfactory industrial deposition.