Study of the oxidation kinetics of vanadium carbide

The oxidation of an oxycarbide of vanadium, VO_0.6C_0.7, and of a vanadium carbide, VC_0.98, was studied athermally up to temperatures of 800° C and isothermally between 400 and 580° C at oxygen pressures ranging from 10^–2 to 1 atm. The oxycarbide followed the parabolic rate law below 450° C with V₂O₅ forming as the only reaction product. The activation energy was 49 kcal/mole. VC_0.98 did not form an oxide in this temperature range, but rather dissolved oxygen, the activation energy being 26.6 kcal/mole. No oxygen pressure dependence on the kinetics was found for either sample in this temperature range. Both samples followed the cubic rate law during oxidation in the range of 500–580° C during which V₂O₅ formed. There was a P^1/3 dependence and the activation energy was the same for both materials, 51 kcal/mole. The cubic rate law and the positive pressure dependency (rather than an anticipated negative dependency) were attributed to an electric field associated with oxygen ions chemisorbed on a thin layer of V₂O₅.