Investigating the ability of iron nitride particles to polish titanium plate

Abstract In this work, first-principles were used to analyze the feasibility that titanium plate was polished by iron nitride, iron nitride particles were prepared by nitriding iron particles with NH3 and the titanium plate surface was polished by magnetic abrasive polishing (MAP) processes. It was found that the titanium plate in use was composed of α-Ti and β-Ti, which bulk modulus and shear modulus were smaller than these of e-Fe3N and γ’-Fe4N, indicating that the titanium plate could be grinded by e-Fe3N and γ’-Fe4N. By nitriding 75, 35 and 20 μm iron particles with 0.2 Mpa NH3 at 600 °C for 1 h, the corresponding particles containing e-Fe3N and γ’-Fe4N were obtained, respectively, which integrated ferromagnetic phase and abrasive phase and had the ability to polish titanium plate surface in nano level in the MAP processes.