Selected Topics on Mass Transport in Gas-solid Interactions

The present article is a short review containing examples of the role of mass transport in the solid state during gas-solid interactions. Examples are taken from the authors' research on the interaction of carbon and/or nitrogen with iron-based metals. Topics dealt with are diffusion-controlled dissolution of carbon in an austenite matrix, nucleation of nitrides at an iron surface, the competition between surface reaction and solid state diffusion during iron-nitride layer growth and the evolution of the morphology of a carbonitride layer during nitrocarburizing. The work presented focuses on the kinetics of phenomena in the solid state. Various experimental techniques were applied to investigate these phenomena; it is however beyond the scope of the present article to treat experimental conditions in detail. The interested reader is referred to the original work for in depth discussions of the experimental details.