Effects on corrosion resistance of low alloy steel after plasma nitriding at elevated temperature

Abstract

In the present work plasma nitriding of low alloy steel at elevated temperature for different exposure time have been performed. With the view to enhance both the hardness and corrosion resistance of the steel plasma nitriding was performed at 500 °C for 8 and 10 h. Post nitrided steel contain Fe4N and ε-Fe2–3N phases as revealed by X-ray diffraction studies. A selected set of plasma nitided samples were exposed to potentiodynamic polarization in 3.5% NaCl electrolyte for the assessment of corrosion resistance property. It was found that the nitrided steel samples possess corrosion resistance much better than the one without nitriding.