Amorphous alloy powders with dispersed carbonitride particles prepared by high pressure nitrogen atomization

Amorphous alloy powders having f.c.c. V(C, N) and Nb(C, N) dispersed particles have been produced by N 2 atomization of Fe13P15C8Cr4Mo alloys including an easy carbonitride-forming element such as vanadium and niobium with a high dynamic pressure of 10 MPa. A critical diameter for the formation of the mixed-phase powders is 63 μm and the particle size and the interparticle distance of the carbonitrides are about 0.2 to 0.6 μm and 0.3 to 1.0 μm, respectively. No distinct degradation of the thermal stability of the amorphous phase by the coexistence of V(C, N) or Nb(C, N) particles is seen. The new processing technique and the resultant mixed-phase powders are expected to become significant as a raw material to produce a material having useful characteristics which are not obtained for an amorphous single phase.