Corrosion Properties of H Mode RF Inductively Coupled Plasma Nitrided Stainless Steel Substrates

Abstract

The corrosion properties of nitrided stainless steel substrates processed in the H mode (plasma driven by an induced azimuthal electric field) of a low frequency rf inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source are investigated. The processing parameters were carefully selected considering the repeatability of the device. Nitrogen plasma operating in the H mode was used for the nitriding process and proper substrate bias was applied during nitriding. Several stainless steel substrates were nitrided at different processing times. Microhardness, XRD and EDX tests were performed on the nitrided samples prior to corrosion testing. The electrochemical polarisation method was used for the latter and the corrosion resistance properties were successfully characterised. Results show the correlation of nitriding times, the phases formed and surface hardness in an assessment of the corrosion properties of the samples.