Depth profiling analysis of the nitriding layer formed by gas nitriding of Ti13Nb13Zr alloy

Abstract The gas nitriding of Ti13Nb13Zr alloy was performed in a pure nitrogen atmosphere at 1200 °C with different holding times. The variations in the phase constituents, microstructure, and mechanical properties of the nitriding layer with depth were characterized by SEM, XRD, and nanoindentation. Depending on the phase distributions in depth, the nitriding layer could be sequentially divided into an external nitride layer mainly consisting of TiN, an internal nitride layer consisting of TiN, Ti 2 N and TiN 0.3 , and an N diffusion region consisting of TiN 0.3 . The mechanical properties were closely associated with the phase constituents, where the nanohardness of the internal nitride layer, internal nitride layer N diffusion region and substrate were about 17.126±0.399, 12.120±0.386, 5.627±1.080, and 3.632±0.116 GPa, respectively. In the nitriding process, the N diffusion region containing needle-like TiN 0.3 precipitates formed in the initial nitriding stage, and then the precipitates were gradually converted to the external and internal nitride layers, whose thickness increased with the nitriding time. Furthermore, the influence of the alloying element redistribution on the N diffusion mechanism was discussed.