Metastable Chromium-Rich Oxide Formed during Plasma Spraying of High-Alloy Steel

During plasma spraying of metals in air, rapid-oxidation reactions occur, inmost cases. In oxidation products of Cr-rich steels, Fe–Cr spineloxide is often found as a dominant oxide phase. A thermodynamic analysisof a system composed of Fe–13%Cr alloy and water vapor or air showedthat the oxidation product in a wide range of high temperatures isFe3-wCrwO4 (w>2). This tetragonallydistorted spinel oxide is not stable at room temperature. Water vapor andair were considered as limits of the gaseous-phase composition inatmospheric spraying by a water-stabilized plasma gun, where the compositionof the plasma plume is modified by air entrainment. The equilibriumcalculations enabled determination of the effects of temperature andgas-to-solid ratio on w. To show the existence of chromium-rich,tetragonally distorted spinel oxide experimentally, a typical productresulting from oxidation of 13%Cr–steel particles during their flightin the plasma plume was studied after rapid solidific ation. This was madepossible by trapping and quenching the flying particles in liquid nitrogenat a distance from the plasma-gun nozzle corresponding to thenozzle–substrate distance in conventional plasma spraying. The resultsobtained by X-ray diffraction, Mossbauer spectroscopy, and X-rayfluorescence analysis showed that this oxide, in which w≈2.4, constitutedthe dominant phase in the oxidation product.