Corrosion resistance properties of glow-discharge nitrided AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel in NaCl solutions

Glow-discharge nitriding treatments can modify the hardness and the corrosion resistance properties of austenitic stainless steels. The modified layer characteristics mainly depend on the treatment temperature. In the present paper the results relative to glow-discharge nitriding treatments carried out on AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel samples at temperatures ranging from 673 to 773 K are reported. Treated and untreated samples were characterized by means of microstructural and morphological analysis, surface microhardness measurements and corrosion tests in NaCl solutions. The electrochemical characterization was carried out by means of linear polarizations, free corrosion potential–time curves and prolonged crevice corrosion tests. Nitriding treatments performed at higher temperatures (>723 K) can largely increase the surface hardness of AISI 316L stainless steel samples, but decrease the corrosion resistance properties due to the CrN precipitation. Nevertheless nitriding treatments performed at lower temperatures (⩽723 K) avoid a large CrN precipitation and allow to produce modified layers essentially composed by a nitrogen super-saturated austenitic metastable phase (S-phase) that shows high hardness and very high pitting and crevice corrosion resistance; at the same polarization potentials the anodic current density values are reduced up to three orders of magnitude in comparison with untreated samples and no crevice corrosion event can be detected after 60 days of immersion in 10% NaCl solution at 328 K.