Abstract
The surface phase changes, the hardness variations, the nitrogen contents and the corrosion resistances of 17-4 PH stainless steel have been investigated after nitrogen permeation(solution nitriding) at a temperature ranges from $1050^{\circ}C$ to $1150^{\circ}C$ The phases appeared at the nitrogen-permeated surface layer were shown to martensite plus austenite and austenite, depending on the variation of nitrogen and chromium contents. And the surface hardness was also depended on the phases appeared at the surface layer from 370 Hv to 220 Hv. The precipitates exhibited at the nitrogen-permeated surface layer were niobium nitride, niobium chromium nitride and carbo-nitride in the austenite and martensite matrices. The surface nitrogen contents were followed by the Cr contents of the surface layers, representing 0.55% at the temperatures of $1050^{\circ}C$ and $1150^{\circ}C$ respectively, and 0.96% at $1100^{\circ}C$ at the distances of $60{\mu}m$ from the outmost surface. From the comparison of the corrosion resistances between nitrogen-permeated and solution-annealed steels, nitrogen permeation remarkably improved the corrosion resistance in the solution of 1 N $H_2SO_4$ due to the increase of nitrogen content in the surface austenite phase.
