ISO 5832-1 stainless steel specimens were plasma nitrided at different nitrogen potentials. The main goal was to obtain the S-phase with different nitrogen concentrations and free of chromium-based precipitates. The control of nitrogen potential was made by pulsing the gas at predetermined times: 10/10, 05/15, 02/18, and 01/19, where the numbers represent the time in minutes that the nitrogen flow was kept on/off, respectively. For all pulsing conditions, the nitriding was carried out at 450 °C for 2 hours. After nitriding, specimens were characterized by means of optical (OM) and electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and microhardness. Results show that the nitrided layer thickness decreases with decreasing times of nitrogen pulse, and that lower times of nitrogen flow lead to lower precipitation of chromium nitrides. It can be thus concluded that the use of intermittent nitrogen flow is an alternative to control the nitrided layer in terms of thickness, hardness, and the amount of nitrogen present in phase ɣ N (S-phase).

The aim of this work was to study the influence of varying nitrogen potential during plasma nitriding of stainless steel ISO 5832-1. The control of nitrogen potential was achieved by pulsing the nitrogen flow for different times (01/19, 02/18, and 05/15), where the numbers represent the time (in minutes) of nitrogen flow on/off, thus creating an intermittent flow of nitrogen during the treatment. For all tested conditions-continuous and pulsed flow of nitrogen-the treatment temperature was kept at 425ºC during 2 and 8 hours. Specimens were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and nanohardness. Results showed that the layer thickness increases with the increase of total treatment time, and decreased for shorter times of pulsed nitrogen flow. Smaller expansion of the austenite phase, as well as less precipitation of chromium nitrides, were also observed for shorter times of pulsed nitrogen flow. Hence, the use of intermittent nitrogen flow appears to be an efficient approach in order to control the nitrogen concentration within the layer, reducing its brittleness.