Enhancement of Pitting Corrosion Resistance of Austenitic Stainless Steel Through Deposition of Amorphous/Nanocrystalline Oxy-nitrided Phases by Active Screen Plasma Treatment

In this research, AISI 304 austenitic stainless steels were efficient treatment using active screen plasma oxy-nitriding technique. The modified layers were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopes, and atomic force microscopy. In addition, the pitting corrosion resistances of untreated and oxy-nitrided samples were analyzed by polarization method in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution. The results showed that a duplex-layer consisting of a deposition layer and a diffusion layer (including CrN+α phase and nitrogen...