Studies on Density, Corrosion Rate and Hardness Characteristics of Stainless Steel Implanted by Nitrogen Ion

In this work, the surface treatment of stainless steel 304 was conducted using nitrogen an ion implantation route performing at 90 KeV and 100 μA with a dose variation of 0.7 × 10¹⁷, 1 × 10¹⁷, 1.3 × 10¹⁷, and 1.6 × 10¹⁷ atoms/cm². The stainless steel used was a thin plate with a thickness of 2 mm and a diameter of 14 mm. The data analysis showed the sample density increased with the increase of nitrogen ions. The samples had hardness value up to 143.32 HVN at an optimum dose of 1 × 10¹⁷ ions/cm². Such an increase is predicted due to the formation of a new nitride layer on the surface. Furthermore, the corrosion properties showed that the best corrosion resistance was of 0.71 mm/year. The microscope electron investigation presented the addition of nitrogen ions.