Wettability and corrosion of spark plasma sintered (SPS) ZrN by liquid iron and steel

Full dense ZrN substrates with a relative density of 96% were prepared by using the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method. Thereafter, the wettability and corrosion behavior of ZrN by liquid iron and steel were studied using a sessile drop technique. The nitrogen diffusion from the ZrN substrate into pure Fe/steel was identified. A strong wetting behavior of the liquid iron and steel in contact with the ZrN substrate was found. This is due to the nitrogen diffusion into the melt. The mechanism of the nitrogen diffusion is mainly due to the ZrN substrate oxidation rather than due to a ZrN dissolution.