Titanizing on the surface of iron metal foam

• Surface of porous iron was alloyed with titanium by titanizing process.
• Titanium coating was originated by evaporation of sponge Ti or TiH2.
• TiH2 helped effective coating due to oxide-free surface by effect of self-reduction.

Titanium coating on the surface of iron foam was performed by “titanizing process” in a high temperature and vacuum conditions to enhance the oxidation resistance of ferrous porous metal. For titanizing, the sponge titanium and titanium hydride were prepared as source materials. They were evaporated at 1223 K and 1.3 × 10−6 kPa for 10 h and the formed titanium gases were coated and alloyed on the surface of porous iron. It was revealed that the titanium hydride helped more effective coating behavior because the released hydrogen before starting titanizing made the surface oxide to be reduced thus cleaned into oxide-free state and the oxidation resistance in elevated temperature at air atmosphere was also relatively enhanced in titanized sample by titanium hydride.