Author(s)

J. C. Díaz-Guillén^1*, E. E. Granda-Gutiérrez¹, G. Vargas-Gutiérrez², M. R. Díaz-Guillén³, J. A. Aguilar-Martínez⁴, L. Álvarez-Contreras⁵

¹Corporación Mexicana de Investigación en Materiales S.A. de C.V.-Cátedras-CONACyT, Saltillo, México.
²Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Saltillo, México.
³GMyPQ, Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas, Cuernavaca, México.
⁴Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, FIME-CIIIA, Apodaca, México.
⁵Centro de Investigación en Materiales Avanzados S.C., Chihuahua, México.

In this work, plasma-nitrided AISI 316L stainless steel samples were performed by ion nitriding process under pulsed direct current (DC) discharge at different current densities (1 to 2.5 mA/ cm²). The effect of nitriding current density on the size of crystalline coherently diffracting domains (crystallite size) and strain grade was investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) coupled with Williamson-Hall method. Additionally, hardness and wear resistance of the nitriding layer were characterized using a Vickers indenter and pin-on-disk technique respectively. Results showed a decrease in crystallite size from 99 nm for untreated samples to 1.4 nm for samples nitrided at 2.5 mA/cm² promoted both: an increase in hardness from 226 HV25g to 1245 HV25g, and a considerably decrease in volume loss by wear effect.

Plasma Nitriding, Strain, Crystallite Size, Hardness, Wear, Stainless

Díaz-Guillén, J. , Granda-Gutiérrez, E. , Vargas-Gutiérrez, G. , Díaz-Guillén, M. , Aguilar-Martínez, J. and Álvarez-Contreras, L. (2015) Effect of Nitriding Current Density on the Surface Properties and Crystallite Size of Pulsed Plasma-Nitrided AISI 316L. Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 3, 45-51. doi: 10.4236/msce.2015.31007.