Microstructural characterization of Ti-Cr and Ti-Cr-Mn coatings deposited using plasma sputtering on Si substrates

Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier for both mobile and stationary applications. However standard hydrogen storage methods present elevated energy costs and safety problems. A solution to overcome these obstacles can be found in the usage of solid-state storage. In this case, hydrogen reacts with metals to form metallic hydrides. In this work, the deposition process of thin films on silicon substrate by means of RF plasma sputtering is described. For this purpose, TiCr1.78 (at%) and Ti-Cr1.38Mn0.4 (at%) have been used as targets and the deposition parameters optimized in order to obtain coatings of about 1 um. Moreover, a Ti interlayer has been deposited to enhance the film stability. Samples have been characterized by means of XRD, EDS, AFM and SEM.