Abstract
Boron-Carbon-Nitrogen (B-C-N) system is an attractive ternary material since it has not only an extremely high hardness but also a number of other prominent characteristics such as chemical inertness, elevated melting point, and low thermal expansion. In this paper, the corrosion behavior of B-C-N thin films in aqueous solution was investigated B-C-N films with different composition were deposited on a platinum plate by magnetron sputtering in the thickness range of 150-280 nm. In order to understand effect of pH of solutions, $BC_{2.\;4}N$ samples were immerged in 1M HCl, 1M NaCl, and 1M NaOH solution at 298k, respectively. BCN samples with different carbon contents were exposed to 1M NaOH solutions to investigate effect of chemical composition on corrosion resistance. Corrosion rates of samples were measured by ellipsometry, From results, optical constant of $BC_{2,\;4}N$ films was found to be $N_2=2.110-0.295i$. The corrosion rates of $Bi_{1.\;0}C_{2.\;4}N_{1.\;0}$ films were NaOH>NaCl>HCl in orders. With increasing carbon content in B-C-N films, the corrosion resistance of B-C-N films was enhanced. The lowest corrosion rate was obtained for $B_{1.\;0}C_{4.\;4}N_{1.\;9}$ film.
