Abstract
The incorporation of nitrogen or carbon in steel is widely applied to provide major improvements in materials performance with respect to fatigue, wear, tribology, and atmospheric corrosion. These improvements rely on a modification of the surface-adjacent region of the material by the (internal) precipitation of alloying element nitrides/carbides or by the development of a continuous layer of iron-based (carbo-) nitrides. The evolution of the microstructure during thermochemical treatments is not only determined by solid-state diffusion, but in many cases also by the kinetics of the surface reactions and the interplay with mechanical stress. In the present article a few examples, covering research on the interaction of carbon and/or nitrogen with iron-based metals, are included to illustrate the various aspects of gas-metal interactions.
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This article is a revised version of the paper printed in the Proceedings of the First International Conference on Diffusion in Solids and Liquids—DSL-2005, Aveiro, Portugal, July 6–8, 2005, Andreas Öchsner, José Grácio and Frédéric Barlat. eds., University of Aveiro, 2005.
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Somers, M.A.J., Christiansen, T. Kinetics of microstructure evolution during gaseous thermochemical surface treatment. J Phs Eqil and Diff 26, 520–528 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11669-005-0045-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11669-005-0045-0