High temperature oxidation of Nb-V alloys

Investigated was the effect of the vanadium content from 1 to 15 wt% in its alloy with niobium oxidation of the alloy in the air at temperatures between 900 and 1200 deg C. The direct relationship between the increase in mass and the time of oxidation of Nb-V alloys indicates that the diffusion through the continuously increasing oxide layer cannot be the stage which controls the oxidation of the alloys with both 5 and 8 % V. The oxidation of these alloys is activation-controlled, and, as the calculated values of the activation energies of the alloys with 5 and 8 % V the same, it may be assumed that the oxidation rate controlling stage of the process are also the same, despite the fact that some amount of the liquid phase must be formed in oxidation of the alloys with 8 % V