Study of bipolar pulsed nanocrystalline plasma electrolytic carbonitriding on nanostructure of compound layer

Surface hardening of commercially pure titanium by using bipolar pulsed nanocrystalline plasma electrolytic carbonitriding was studied in this investigation. The coating process was performed on triethanolamine-based electrolyte by a cooling bath. The nanostructure of the obtained compound layer was examined with figure analysis of SEM nanographs. The effects of process variables, i.e., triethanolamine concentration, electrical conductivity of electrolyte, applied voltage, and treatment time, have been experimentally studied. Statistical methods were used to achieve the optimum size of nanocrystals. Finally, the contribution percentage of effective factors of pulsed current was revealed and confirmation runs showed the validity of the obtained results.