On the combination of plasma nitrided surfaces and LIPSS

LIPSS are subjected to excessive wear when exposed to direct contact in tribological applications. Therefore, precautions must be taken to increase LIPSS’ hardness and wear resistance while simultaneously preserving their properties like superhydrophilicity. This work shows that a firstly plasma nitrided and subsequently structured surface results in LIPSS of high nano-hardness (14.88 GPa ± 1.05 GPa) who show a super hydrophilic wetting behavior (contact angle of 7°). The results indicate that a previous nitriding could bring LIPSS into tribological applications.