Wear and corrosion properties of plasma-based low-energy nitrogen ion implanted titanium

Plasma-based low-energy nitrogen ion implantation, including plasma source ion nitriding/carburizing and plasma source low-energy ion enhanced deposition, has emerged as a low-temperature surface engineering technique for metal and alloy. In this paper, the pure metal Ti samples have been modified by the plasma source ion nitriding process at a process temperature of 700 °C for a processing time of 4 h. The nitrided Ti surfaces were constructed of a continuous and dense Ti2N compound layer about 2 μm thick and a 7–8 μm diffused layer. During tribological test on a ball on disk tribometer against the Si3N4 ceramic counterface, a low friction coefficient of about 0.3 and the faint wear volume were obtained for the nitrided Ti samples. The cyclic polarization curves of the nitrided Ti samples in 3.5% and 6.0% NaCl solutions showed that the improved pitting corrosion resistance with an increase of corrosion potential and a decrease of passive current, compared with that of the unnitrided Ti sample. The plasma source ion nitriding of the Ti samples provided the engineering surfaces for the functional applications with the combined improvement in wear and corrosion resistance.