Titanium carbide (TiC) coatings have attracted wide attention from researchers and industry due to their high hardness, wear and corrosion resistance. In this study, a plasma emission monitoring system was adopted to feedback control the target poisoning status of 70% in a gas mixture of acetylene using four different power supply modes including superimposed HiPIMS-MF, HiPIMS, MF, and DC. The nanocrystalline TiC/a-C:H nanocomposite coatings containing NaCl-type TiC nanocrystallites (3–7 nm in diameter) embedded in a hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) matrix microstructures were fabricated by four different power supply modes. The corrosion resistance of 304 stainless steel substrate against the sulfuric acid attack was greatly improved by the four nc-TiC/a-C:H nanocomposite coatings. Although the deposition rate of the coating prepared by the DC power supply was the highest, the film quality was inferior to other films due to its higher oxygen content and larger TiC grain size. On the other hand, the nc-TiC/a-C:H coating fabricated by the superimposed HiPIMS-MF power mode exhibited a featureless microstructure with the highest hardness of 27.5 GPa and the highest H³/E² ratio of 0.38. The nc-TiC/a-C:H nanocomposite film grown by superimposed HiPIMS-MF became a promising protective coating in severe environment applications due to its high hardness, good adhesion, adequate tribological properties, and excellent corrosion resistance against sulfuric acid.

碳化钛 (TiC) 涂层因其高硬度、耐磨和耐腐蚀性能而受到研究人员和工业界的广泛关注。本研究采用等离子发射监测系统，采用叠加的HiPIMS-MF、HiPIMS、MF和DC四种不同的供电方式，对乙炔混合气中70%的目标中毒状态进行反馈控制。纳米晶 TiC/aC:H 纳米复合涂层包含嵌入氢化非晶碳 (aC:H) 基体微结构中的 NaCl 型 TiC 纳米微晶（直径 3-7 nm），通过四种不同的电源模式制造。4 种 nc-TiC/aC:H 纳米复合涂层大大提高了 304 不锈钢基材对硫酸侵蚀的耐腐蚀性能。尽管直流电源制备的涂层沉积速率最高，但由于其氧含量较高，TiC晶粒尺寸较大，薄膜质量不如其他薄膜。另一方面，由叠加的 HiPIMS-MF 功率模式制备的 nc-TiC/aC:H 涂层表现出无特征的微观结构，最高硬度为 27.5 GPa，最高 H³ /E ²比率为0.38。由叠加的 HiPIMS-MF 生长的 nc-TiC/aC:H 纳米复合膜由于其硬度高、附着力好、摩擦学性能足够以及对硫酸具有优异的耐腐蚀性，成为一种在恶劣环境应用中很有前途的保护涂层。