Tribological studies of ZrO₂‐implanted on stainless steel substrate

The tribological properties such as surface hardness, friction and wear have been studied for AISI 316L stainless steel substrates which were co‐ion implanted with zirconium and oxygen ions. It is found that the wear resistance for AISI 316L stainless steel substrates implanted with zirconium and oxygen ions increased quite a lot. It is concluded that the increase in surface microhardness and the decrease in friction coefficient of AISI 316L stainless steel substrates play an important role in improving the wear resistance, and the relationship between relative wear volume and microhardness is correlated for zirconium and oxygen co‐ion implantation.