Effects of surface nanocrystallization pretreatment on low-temperature ion sulfurization behavior of 1Cr18Ni9Ti stainless steel

A nanocrystalline surface layer of 10 μm thickness was fabricated on 1Cr18Ni9Ti stainless steel by means of supersonic fine particles bombarding (SFPB). The followed low-temperature ion sulfurizing was carried out on the original and the SFPBed (SFPB treated) surface, respectively, forming sulfide layers with certain thickness. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to analyze the phase constituents and grain size of the nanocrystallized surface layer. The surface morphologies and compositions of the sulfide layers were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS) was used to detect the valence states of the sulfide layers. Elemental distribution with depth was measured by augur energy spectroscopy (AES). The results show that the microstructure of the surface layer is refined to nano-grains with the grain size about 30 nm and random crystallographic orientations by SFPB treatment. The surface nanocrystallization pretreatment can significantly improve the thickness, density, and the FeS content ratio of the sulfide layers. The analysis indicates that, the enhancement in efficiency of the ion sulfurization treatment by SFPB surface nanocrystallization treatment is mainly attributed to the high-density crystal defects and the increase of surface chemical activity.