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Oxidation behavior of vacuum plasma-sprayed hafnium–tantalum nitrides

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Abstract

A series of (HfN)1−x(TaN)x, ceramics with x representing the starting powder blend compositions of 0.0, 18.8, 28.1, and 46.7 at.%, have been fabricated by vacuum plasma spraying. During the plasma spraying, the mixture lost approximately 25 at.% nitrogen facilitating the precipitation of metallic and metal-rich nitride phases. These specimens underwent static air oxidation exposure up to 1700 °C. In general, it was found that the addition of tantalum nitrides to the hafnium nitrides resulted in poorer oxidation behavior. However, the 18.8 at.% specimen deviated from this trend and had the lowest observed mass change. This specimen formed a dark-colored oxide scale, indexed as Hf6Ta2O17, which acted as a passivation layer. Within the scale, hafnium oxynitride phases were observed. A transformation pathway in forming these rhombohedral oxynitride phases is proposed by the filling in of oxygen in the light element interstitial locations of the rhombohedral ε-Hf3N2 and ζ-Hf4N3 structures.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors thank Dr. Eric Wuchina for technical discussions. This work has been approved for public release 14-MDA-7794.

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  1. Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 35487-0202, USA

    Bradford C. Schulz & Gregory B. Thompson

  2. Plasma Processes, LLC, Huntsville, Alabama, 35811, USA

    Daniel Butts

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  1. Bradford C. Schulz
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Correspondence to Gregory B. Thompson.

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Schulz, B.C., Butts, D. & Thompson, G.B. Oxidation behavior of vacuum plasma-sprayed hafnium–tantalum nitrides. Journal of Materials Research 30, 2949–2957 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.191

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