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Abstract: AISI-304 austenitic stainless steel has been nitrocarburized in N2 and C2H2 ambient using high-voltage plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) technology. The use of different PIII treatment times revealed important hints with respect to the microstructural, mechanical and corrosion properties of the nitrocarburized layer. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) shows the presence of nitride (γ N and CrN) and carbide (γ C and Fe3C) phases. Glow discharge optical spectroscopy (GDOS) has been used to characterize the elemental depth profiles in which the thickness of the modified layers is derived. Dynamic microindentation method is used for the study of mechanical performance of the nitrocarburized layer as well as the untreated material. The microhardness has been increased to a maximum value of more than nine times compared to that of the untreated one. The corrosion performance is characterized by potentiodynamic polarization technique and was found to be treatment time dependent. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present work describes the surface improvement and biocompatibility of TiAl24Nb10 intermetallic alloy using rf plasma nitriding. The nitriding process was carried out at different plasma power from 400W to 650W where the other plasma conditions were fixed. Grazing incidence X-ray diffractometry (GIXRD), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), tribometer and a nanohardness tester were employed to characterize the nitrided layer. Further potentiodynamic polarization method was used to describe the corrosion behavior of the un-nitrided and nitrided alloy. It has been found that the Vickers hardness (HV) and corrosion resistance values of the nitrided layers increase with increasing plasma power while the wear rates of the nitrided layers reduce by two orders of magnitude as compared to those of the un-nitrided layer. This improvement in surface properties of the intermetallic alloy is due to formation of a thin modified layer which is composed of titanium nitride in the alloy surface. Moreover, all modified layers were tested for their sustainability as a biocompatible material. Concerning the application area of biocompatibility, the present treated alloy show good surface properties especially for the nitrided alloy at low plasma power of 400W. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Surface of 304 AISI austenitic stainless steel has been modified using duplex treatment technique of nitriding and carbonitriding. A thick modified nitrided layer, of approximately 20 µm, has been achieved when rf inductively coupled plasma was adjusted at 450 W for processing time of only 10 min. After performing the nitrided layer, the nitrided samples were carbonitrided using the same technique at different acetylene partial pressure ratios ranges from 10% to 70%, the balance was pure nitrogen. Different amount of nitrogen and carbon species are diffused underneath the surface through the nitrided layer during carbonitriding process and are found to be gas composition dependent. The treated samples were characterized by glow discharge optical spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy and Vickers microhardness tester. The microstructure of the duplex treated layer indicates the formation of γ́-Fe4N, Fe3C, CrN and nitrogen-expanded austenite (γN). The thickness of the duplex treated layer increases with increasing the acetylene partial pressure ratio. The surface microhardness of duplex treated samples has been found to be gas composition dependent and increased by 1.29 fold in comparison to the nitrided sample. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]