Erosion-corrosion behavior of Ti(C,N)-based cermets containing different secondary carbides

The present work investigated the effects of secondary carbides (Mo2C\WC\TaC\NbC) on the erosion-corrosion behavior of Ti(C,N)-based cermets. The results indicate that the erosion-corrosion resistance of Ti(C,N)-based cermets is enhanced in the order of NbC, TaC, WC and Mo2C addition. The contribution of erosion to the erosion-corrosion of Ti(C,N)-based cermets is much more significant than that of corrosion, and it increases with the decreased mechanical properties. The synergistic effect plays a dominant role in the degradation of Ti(C,N)-based cermets in erosion-corrosion conditions. There are two modes to ceramic phase degradation in erosion conditions: large ceramic grains are prone to deterioration through crack initiation and propagation → grain fracture → fragment removal; finer ceramic grains trend to be pulled out after the deterioration of binder and interface. The binder loss is determined by the corrosion resistance of binder, the erosion resistance of binder and the erosion resistance of ceramic phase.