Titanium Nitriding: A Systematic Literature Review

In the last twenty years, the manufacturing of titanium and its alloys for commercial use continued to expand. As this material has several very advantageous properties, leading to increasing applications in various industries, it is seldom used in mechanical engineering applications due to its tribological properties, which are unfavourable. The nitriding process is one of the most frequently used thermochemical processes designed to enhance the surface characteristics of titanium alloys and improve tribological properties. Various types of nitriding for titanium are studied, such as ion nitriding, plasma nitriding, laser nitriding and gas nitriding. This article provides a comprehensive examination of research papers on different advancements through a systematic literature review conducted in the period 2017-2023 about titanium nitriding for its process parameters, characteristics and functionalities of the product, particularly emphasising their contributions in surface characteristics and mechanical properties. The review seeks to offer an understanding of how the predominant processing factors, specifically temperature and time, affect the microstructure and the creation of novel phases. This review suggests a challenge for future researchers to investigate mechanisms of microstructure evolution and its impact on mechanical properties in conditioned environments to microhardness and ability to withstand rusting of titanium and its alloys.