Oxidation Behavior of Maraging 300 Alloy Exposed to Nitrogen/Water Vapor Atmosphere at 500 °C

Aging heat treatments in maraging steels are fundamental to achieve the excellent mechanical properties required several industries, i.e., nuclear, automotive, etc. In this research, samples of 300 alloy were aged using a novel procedure that combines different steps with two atmospheres (nitrogen and water vapor) for hours. The oxidized surface layer was chemical, microstructural micromechanically characterized. Due thermodynamic kinetic conditions, these gases reacted change chemistry steel producing thin iron-based oxide homogeneous thickness around 500 nm. Within aforementioned information, porosity other defects showed non-homogeneous oxide, mainly constituted by magnetite, nickel ferrite, cobalt small amount hematite more external parts layer. sense, from chemical point view, treatment under specific atmosphere allows induce magnetic mixture iron, nickel, spinel ferrites. On hand, presents an adhesive force 99 mN value shows capability being used tribological applications sliding contact tests.