Corrosion and Micro-Abrasion Properties of an AISI 316L Austenitic Stainless Steel after Low-Temperature Plasma Nitriding

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In this paper, the effects of nitriding time and temperature on surface roughness, hardness, microstructure, micro-abrasion wear resistance, and electrochemical behavior were investigated. These results provide valuable references for helping to study the effect of plasma nitriding on the properties of AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel. However, there are still some issues that need to be addressed in the article.

1. There is no background knowledge on the research object and research methods in the abstract, so it is recommended to add some appropriately.

2. The authors should cite the latest literatures that is significantly related to the research content of the article.

3. The second column of Table 2 is misaligned and needs to be corrected.

4. The nitriding time of the two samples should be indicated in Figure 1b.

5. There is a large margin of blank space below Section 2.4 that needs to be adjusted.

6. There was an error in the citation order of the literature, with reference 31 appearing before the 30th.

7. The image quality in Figures 6, 7, and 9 is relatively blurry, and some information in the images cannot be clearly seen. It is recommended to improve the image quality.

8. More content on the innovations of the paper should be added in Conclusion section.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

No comments

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This research provides valuable insights into the effects of plasma nitriding on the properties of austenitic stainless steel, highlighting the importance of optimizing nitriding parameters for specific applications. In my opinion, this research is interesting and valuable. Therefore, this manuscript is ready to be published after minor revision.

The followings are the advice for the author to modify:

1. In section 2.5. DC Electrochemical Tests. The open-circuit potential should be represented by E_ocp, and E_corr represents the corrosion potential. The authors should be carefully introspective.

2. Figure 13 should be redrawn. Localised enlargements could be added to the high frequency areas of Figures 13(a) and 13(b). in order to show the difference between the different groups more clearly.

3. Why did the authors choose to perform electrochemical tests in a 3.5% NaCl solution?

 

4. The author should have given the fitted chi-square values in Table 6.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript was on micro-abrasion properties and corrosion properties on the plasma nitriding 316 samples. There must be many researches on the themes but this manuscripts should not be good originality or some new data compared with the previous researches.

First of all, I don't understand the reasons of the parameters on the plasma nitriding which were suggested by authors. They explained in the page 4, according to previous experiments, the precipitates including CrN at a working pressure of 600 Pa were already formed only after 4 hours, they should reviewed on the samples with times at a working pressure of 200 Pa, but they didn’t mentioned on the results in the manuscripts and in the conclusions.

Also the abrasion properties and corrosion properties of nitriding STS samples must be worsened and the results must be well reported in the previous manuscripts. But authors just showed the same results without showing the phases those prepared in this research. I think they should showed the reasons why precipitates would be formed with nitriding time at a working pressure of 200 Pa. And if they could showed the experimental method to increase the thickness of s-phase at a working pressure of 200 Pa, it would be greatly helpful for the readers in the same fields.

For minor remarks, the hardness of the nitriding layer should be measured by the Vickers hardness tester with lower loads or micro-indenter because the nitriding layers must be very thin. Also to distinguish the microstructures between the s-phase layer and CrN precipitates layer, they should be prepared with using different etching methods. Also they should show the microstructure of the samples prepared in 4 hours nitriding.

According to my opinion based on the review, the manuscript should be major revised.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have replied and conducted corrections according to the review comments.