Oxidation of vanadium carbide in air

It was studied the samples oxidation of vanadium carbide (V8C7), synterized and in powder, in order to know the temperature influence and the aggregation state in the kinetics and the oxidation products. The assays were realized in static air, at temperature between 600 y 750 Centigrade, between 6 and 24 hours periods. The gaseous products were analyzed through gas chromatography while the condensates ones were analyzed through optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and chemical analysis by X-ray fluorescence analysis. It was found that in the V8C7 oxidation occurs two basic processes: the gaseous oxides production which results of the carbon oxidation, fundamentally CO2, and the vanadium condensate oxides production, fundamentally V2O5. In the synterized samples assayed under 650 Centigrade, the kinetics is lineal with loss of mass, suggesting a control by the formation of gaseous products in the sample surface, while in the synterized samples assayed over 650 Centigrade, it occurs a neat gain of mass, which is attributed to vanadium pentoxide fusion. These processes produce stratified layers of V2O5 although at higher temperatures also it was detected V2O4. The superficial area effect is revealed in what the powder samples always experiment a mass neat increase in all essay temperatures, being the condensate oxidation products, fundamentally V2O5 and V6O13. (Author)