C-SiC coatings were prepared on stainless steel with magnetron sputtering deposition followed by Argon ion bombardment. These samples were implanted by 5 keV hydrogen ion beam. SEM, SIMS and IR transmission were utilized to study the mechanism and the stability of hydrogen retention of C-SiC coatings. Comparison was made between the samples with and without removing Argon by heating then followed by H^＋ ion implantation. The results show that removal of argon by heating can improve the hydrogen retention of the C-SiC coatings. The thermal stability of hydrogen barrier for the C-SiC coatings was investigated, it is found that the property of hydrogen retention for the C-SiC coatings is still good after heating at 573 K, but it becomes worse after heating at 873 K, and it loses after heating at 1 173 K.
C-SiC coatings were prepared on stainless steel substrate by the middle frequency magnetron sputtering （MFMS） and ion beam mixing technique. After deposition, these samples were implanted by 5 keV hydrogen ion beam at a dose of 1×1018 ion/cm2. Some samples were heat treated at different temperatures from 273 K to 1173 K separately. The surface morphology, surface concentration of the elements of the C-SiC coatings and element iron from substrate as well as their depth profiles were checked with SEM, XPS and SIMS analyses. The results show that the composition of the coatings is changed due to heat treatment at different temperatures. The C-50%SiC coating with an excellent hydrogen resistant property can act as hydrogen barrier at the temperature below 723 K. But the hydrogen resistant property of the coating becomes bad when it is used at the temperature of 1023 K.
