Tantalum hafnium carbide

Hafnium is a lustrous, silvery, ductile metal with a high melting point. The mechanical properties of the metal are markedly affected by traces of impurities such as O, N, and C which have an embrittling effect on the metal, making it difficult to fabricate. The alloy tantalum hafnium carbide (Ta4HfCs), with a melting point of 4215 °C, is one of the most refractory substances known. 

Hafnium has been successfully alloyed with iron, titanium, niobium, tantalum, and other metals. Hafnium carbide is the most refractory binary composition known, and the nitride is the most refractory of all known metal nitrides (m.p. 3310C). At 700 degrees C hafnium rapidly absorbs hydrogen to form the composition HfHl.86. 

Niobium carbide is used as a component of hard metals, eg, mixtures of metal carbides that are cemented with cobalt, iron, and nickel. Along with tantalum carbide, niobium carbide is added to impart toughness and shock and erosion resistance. The spiraling rise in the price of tantalum has spurred the development of a hafnium carbide—niobium carbide substitute for tantalum carbide (68). These cemented carbides are used for tool bits, drill bits, shovel teeth, and other wear-resistant components turbine blades and as dies in high pressure apparatus (see Carbides). 

Hafnium carbide (HfC) is an interstitial carbide which, with tantalum carbide, is the most refractory compound known. Its characteristics and properties are summarized in Table 9.4. 

The silvery, shiny, ductile metal is passivated with an oxide layer. Chemically very similar to and always found with zirconium (like chemical twins, with almost identical ionic radii) the two are difficult to separate. Used in control rods in nuclear reactors (e.g. in nuclear submarines), as it absorbs electrons more effectively than any other element. Also used in special lamps and flash devices. Alloys with niobium and tantalum are used in the construction of chemical plants. Hafnium dioxide is a better insulator than Si02. Hafnium carbide (HfC) has the highest melting point of all solid substances (3890 °C record ). 

Special carbide tools also will often contain various percentages of titanium, tantalum, niobium icolumbium). and hafnium carbides, along witii die tungsten carbide. Chromium and vanadium carbides are also added to produce special, fine-grain-size grades of cemented tungsten carbide-cobalt materials. See Fig. 1. 

Hafnium carbide has an extremely high melting point (3887 °C) and may find use as an alternative to tantalum carbide in the production of very hard metal components.28... 

Zirconium carbide, ZrC, and hafnium carbide, HfC, can be manufactured in a similar way to titanium carbide. They are not very important in cemented carbide technology. The recent strong reduction in the price of HfC has enabled its application as a substitute for the dearer tantalum carbide. 

Hafnium carbide is, with tantalum carbide, the most refractory compound available. In spite of its excellent properties, it has only limited industrial importance, possibly because of its high cost (see Ch. 16). Some experimental applications are as follows ... 

Graphite can thus be considered the most refractory of cill the elements, tungsten being second-best with a melting point of 3680 K. However hafnium carbide (HfC) and tantalum carbide (TaC) are reported to have higher melting points (approximately 4220 K and 4270 K respectively) and are the most refractory of all materials.f ... 

DJ Rowchiffe, GE Hoflox. Plastic flow and fracture of tantalum carbide and hafnium carbide at low temperatures. J Mater Sci 6 1261, 1971. 

Nitrogen and carbon are the most potent solutes to obtain high strength in refractory metals (55). Particulady effective ate carbides and carbonitrides of hafnium in tungsten, niobium, and tantalum alloys, and carbides of titanium and zirconium in molybdenum alloys. 

In this paper we review the results of our systematic work on the catalytic and adsorptive properties of transition metal carbides (titanium, zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, and iron). We focus our attention on the oxidation of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and the oxidative coupling of methane. The first two reactions are examples of complete (non-selective) oxidation, while the oxidation of ammonia simulates a selective oxidation process. The reaction of oxidative coupling of methane is being intensively explored at present as a means to produce higher hydrocarbons.5 10... 

The transition metal carbides and nitrides have often been called interstitial compounds [70] however, this is somewhat misleading. The small boron, carbon, or nitrogen atoms certainly occupy octahedral or trigonal prismatic voids of the metal sublattice, but the arrangement of the metal atoms themselves is different from that of the element. In the monocarbides the transition metal atoms show cubic close packing. However, titanium, zirconium, and hafnium are packed hexagonally and vanadium, niobium, and tantalum are body centered cubic [1]. Thus, these monocarbides are inorganic compounds with their individual crystal structures and they should not be considered as an interstitial compound of a transition metal host lattice. 

The early transition metal nitrides of titanium, zirconium, hafnium, tantalum, and tungsten as well as titanium and tantalum carbide are effective diffusion... 

Potentially useful single crystal HP-LCVD fibers include hafnium boride and tantalum carbide and have projected service temperatures ranging from 2170 to 2715 C. Presently envisioned applications include the potential use of these fibers as consumable sensors to monitor rocket exhaust temperatures. Other HP-LCVD sensor fibers, including Si, Ge and ZnSe, (Figure 15), promise to offer high value in premium automotive and medical sensor systems. Single crystal HP-LCVD germanium [20] and silicon carbide [21] fibers can now also become available for exploration. In summary, the HP-LCVD process is an ideally suited tool for the rapid fabrication and evaluation, without extensive process research, of test samples of potentially new fiber candidates for structural and sensor uses. 

For ZrC, HfC and TaC, the addition of MoSi proved to be benefieial for the densification and the achievement of homogeneons microstructures. AetuaUy, the eomparison with typical grain sizes of monolithic zirconium, hafnium or tantalum carbides, for which dimension of 10-20 pm are reported (Roeder, 1968), highlights that MoSij addition allows the aehievement of finer microstruetures (1.4-3.9 pm), beeanse much lower sintering temperatures are required. Moreover, due its brittle... 

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