Nitridation kinetics of niobium in the temperature range of 873 to 1273 K

The kinetics of Nb (Cb) nitridation and ε-NbN growth obey a parabolic relationship and their temperature dependence can be expressed ask _p = 5.19 × 10⁻⁷ exp (−125,500/RT) and (k _{p ξ} = 1.15 × 10⁻⁴ exp (−61,500/RT), respectively, with the activation energies in joules/mole. The nitrogen diffusion coefficient in niobium, obtained from microhardness traverses, is given byD = 1.02 × 10⁻⁵ exp (−77,000/RT). A diffusion model accounting for the partition of nitrogen between ε-NbN and Nb is proposed. The total nitrogen uptake calculated from the model is compared to that obtained experimentally.