{Reference Type}: Journal Article {Title}: Incipient low-temperature formation of MAX phase in Cr–Al–C films {Author}: CRISAN, O.; A. D., CRISAN {Journal}: Journal of Advanced Ceramics {ISBN/ISSN}: 2226-4108 {Year}: 2018 {Volume}: 7 {Issue}: 2 {Pages}: 143-151 {DOI}: 10.1007/s40145-018-0265-5 {Keywords}: X-ray diffraction (XRD) {Keywords}: annealing {Keywords}: crystallization {Keywords}: ternary carbides {Keywords}: DC sputtering {Keywords}: wavelength-dispersive X-ray analysis (WDSX) {Abstract}: Ceramic-metallic MAX phase of chromium aluminium carbide ternary compounds was successfully obtained through deposition by DC sputtering onto Si substrates. A study of the influence of substrate temperature and in-air post-annealing on the film crystallinity and oxidation was undertaken. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), wavelength-dispersive X-ray analysis (WDSX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used for film characterization. It is shown that, at substrate temperature of about 450 ℃, as-deposited films are amorphous with small nanocrystals. Subsequent annealing in air at 700 ℃ leads to film crystallization and partial oxidation. WDSX spectroscopy shows that the films oxidise to a depth of around 120 nm, or 5% of total film thickness which amounts at around 2.68 µm. As a novelty, this demonstrates the possibility of in-air crystallization of Cr2AlC films without significant oxidation. Materials Analysis Using Diffraction (MAUD) software package for a full-profile analysis of the XRD patterns (Rietveld-type) was used to determine that, as a result of annealing, the average crystallite size changes from 7 to 34 nm, while microstrain decreases from 0.79% to 0.24%. A slight tendency of preferential growth along the (101¯0) direction has been observed. Such texturing of the microstructure has the potential of inducing beneficial anisotropic fracture behaviour in the coatings, potentially interesting for several industrial applications in load-bearing devices. {URL}: https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s40145-018-0265-5 {Language}: en