Low-temperature short-time nitriding of Va-group metals, V, Nb and Ta, in uncracked NH3 gas under heating with concentrated solar power (CSP)

In the present work, nitriding of Va-group metals (V, Nb and Ta) was attempted in stream of NH3 gas under irradiation of concentrated solar beam. After 90 min heating in uncracked NH3 under concentrated solar beam up to 800 °C, X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization of the reaction products showed certain extent of nitriding progressed for all the specimens in spite of relatively low reaction temperature for short reaction duration.