Long - term stability and oxidation resistance of ferritic stainless steels which used as interconnects in solid oxide fuel cells can be improved by use of a protective, effective, relatively dense and well adherent coating. In this study Mn has been deposited onto the substrate AISI 430 Ferritic stainless steel by pack cementation process. In order to optimize the quality of the formed coating, The effective factors of pack cementation process was investigated by changing these factors, which are salt activator content in the pack powder (1–5%w.t.), deposition temperature (700–800°C) and deposition time (3.5–4 h). The as-coated samples were investigated with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) associated with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). It was revealed that each parameter affect the coating thickness, coating quality and integrity. The best formed coating on the substrate consists of 1 layer with the thickness of 30 micron. Investigation by XRD demonstrates that the coating is consists of CrMn3, alpha-Mn and FeMn4.
Ferritic stainless steel, Pack cementation, Manganese deposition
