Interaction of chlorinated hydrocarbons with nichrome alloy: From surface transformations to complete dusting

•The metal dusting process of NiCr in the C2H4Cl2 atmosphere was studied.•The exposure time was varied from 20 s to 1 h to study the evolution of the bulk item.•The TEM technique was adopted for studying the nichrome wires.•The 4-stage schematic mechanism describing the MD process was proposed. The process of a metal dusting of the nichrome alloy in the atmosphere of chlorinated hydrocarbon was investigated. A series of samples with different exposure times was prepared to study the bulk NiCr evolution. The X-ray diffraction data revealed no changes in the phase composition of the nichrome alloy after 1-h treatment, since the amount of deposited carbon does not exceed 1 wt%. The formation of carbon filaments was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. According to the transmission electron microscopy results, the 4-stage schematic mechanism describing the metal dusting process of the bulk nichrome alloy was proposed and discussed.