• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.237-242
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• 2007

Friction coefficient of SM45C steel was surprisingly reduced with $H_2S$ and $C_3H_8$ gas during plasma sulf-nitriding. During the plasma sulf-nitriding, 100-700 sccm of $H_2S$ gas and 100 sccm of $C_3H_8$ gas were added and working pressure and temperature were 2 torr, $500-550^{\circ}C$, respectively. As $H_2S$ gas amount increased over 500 sccm, flake-like structures were developed on top of the nitriding layer and grain size of the nitriding layer were about 100 nm. The friction coefficient for the sample treated plasma sulf-nitriding under $N_2-H_2S$ gas was 0.4 - 0.5. The structure became more finer and amorphous-like along with $N_2-H_2S-C_3H_8$ gas and the nano-sized surface microstructures resulted in high hardness and significantly low friction coefficient of 0.2.