Improved nitrogen transport in Fe-C alloys during NH₃ plasma nitridation

In the thermochemical process of Fe-C alloy nitridation, improvements of mechanical properties are governed by the way the nitrogen diffusion profiles extend into the material. Up to now, thermal or ionic nitridation cannot be achieved at temperature lower than 550°C because of the strong lowering of nitrogen diffusivity. The present study shows that improved nitrogen transport can be obtained after nitridation in NH 3 plasma without cathodic bias on the samples. Such cold conditions allow the iron matrix to be nitrided in a depth range of 100-400 μm at a temperature as low as 350°C. The top surface hardness was shown to be improved by a factor of 3. This surface strengthening, markedly superior to that obtained with the classical treatments, is a well-known consequence of the temperature lowering that avoids coarsening of nitride microprecipitates. In addition, using this particular process, no growth of compound layer was observed at the surface. This absence of diffusion barrier is clearly beneficial to the improvement of the nitrogen transport. The high nitridation efficiency obtained at low temperature may be explained by an enhanced grain boundary diffusion due to defects generated by hydrogenous radicals produced in the plasma.