Enhancing the mechanical and anticorrosion properties of 316L stainless steel via a cathodic plasma electrolytic nitriding treatment with added PEG

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2019.07.031

Abstract

Abstract:

A cathodic plasma electrolytic nitriding (CPEN) treatment with a urea aqueous solution was performed on 316L stainless steel to rapidly improve its surface properties in this work. Test results show that the PEG2000 macromolecules increased the nitriding energy via enhancing the ability to bond the produced gas film to the metal/electrolyte interface. The cross-sectional morphologies indicate that a thick nitrided layer was obtained when the urea concentration was 543 g l^-1, corresponding to a Vickers hardness 450 HV_0.1, which was 3.5 times larger than that of the substrate. The nitrided layer mainly contained expanded austenite (γ_N), oxides and iron nitrides (e.g., Fe₃O₄ and FeN_0.076). In terms of its performance, coefficient of friction (COF) of the nitride layer decreased to nearly two-thirds that of the untreated layer, and the passivation current densities of the nitrided sample in a 3.5% NaCl solution decreased by an order of magnitude compared to that of the substrate. Therefore, the approach presented herein provides an attractive way to modify the effect of CPEN in a urea aqueous solution.

Key words: 316L stainless steel, Cathodic plasma electrolytic nitriding, Coefficient of friction, Polarization curves

Zhang Tianyi, Wu Junsheng, Jin Lei, Zhang Zhan, Rong Wan, Zhang Bowei, Wang Yi, He Yedong, Liu Wei, Li Xiaogang. Enhancing the mechanical and anticorrosion properties of 316L stainless steel via a cathodic plasma electrolytic nitriding treatment with added PEG[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2019, 35(11): 2630-2637.

Figures/Tables 13

Table 1 Compositions of the solutions in the four experiments.

Solution	A	B	C	D
Urea (g l^-1)	30	174	347	543
PEG2000 (g l^-1)	10	10	10	10
NH₄Cl (g l^-1)	16.7	16.7	16.7	16.7

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the cathodic plasma electrolytic nitriding process.

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of PEG to bond film on the metal/electrolyte interface.

Fig. 3. Current density-voltage (ic-V) curves of three experiments for investigating the increase of nitriding energy in CPEN.

Fig. 4. Cross-sectional morphologies obtained from three experiments for focusing the nitriding energy: (a) I: sample without any pretreatments; (b) II: five surfaces of the sample were sealed; (c) III: PEG2000 was added to the solution.

Fig. 5. SEM cross-section images (a-d) of samples treated in solutions A, B, C and D after erosion and (e) SEM and EDS analysis of the sample treated by method III without erosion.

Table 2 Mean values and standard deviation values (σ) of the nitrided layer thickness.

Solution	A	B	C	D
Layer thickness	13.82 μm	15.38 μm	21.27 μm	28.06 μm
Layer thickness	(σ = 0.23)	(σ = 0.34)	(σ = 0.28)	(σ = 0.24)

Fig. 6. XRD patterns of the untreated samples and samples treated in solutions A, B, C and D.

Fig. 7. Curves for COF vs. sliding time of the treated and untreated samples.

Fig. 8. Friction topography and 3D simulation diagram of (a) untreated sample and (b) the sample treated in solution D.

Fig. 9. Hardness vs. depth curves of samples in treated in solutions of A, B, C and D.

Fig. 10. Potentiodynamic polarization curves of untreated and nitrided samples in 3.5% NaCl solution.

Table 3 Fitting values of the Tafel region in polarization curves obtained in 3.5% NaCl solution.

Sample	E_corr (mV_SCE)	i_corr (μA cm^-2)
316L	-290	0.547
A	-141	0.815
B	-332	0.103
C	-150	0.092
D	100	0.212

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