Performance in saline environment of a carbon steel surface modified by three-dimensional ion implantation

The three-dimensional ion implantation method is presented as a new plasma-ion technology for advanced surface treatment. It is based on a high voltage pulsed discharge activated in the low-pressure range and applicable to solid surface immersed in a gaseous atmosphere. This process is carried out in the joint universal plasma and ion technologies experimental reactor and is widely used to improve the tribological properties and corrosion resistance of metallic materials, specially steels. In this study, the performance in a corrosive environment of a carbon steel surface-modified was evaluated. High-energy nitrogen ions were implanted on the surface of the material at different discharge voltages and times. Treated and non-treated substrates were exposed to saline solution for 35 days, where the effect of the surface modification was shown to decrease the corrosion rate and degradation of the implanted material surface compared to untreated substrates. The estimation of the nitrogen concentration from experimental parameters were calculated by a novel web application. Additionally, the effect of the implantation process of the modified steel structure was analyzed by optical emission spectroscopy, whose results detected mainly an increase of the nitrogen concentration at the surface of the modified substrates. (paper)