How to avoid decarburization of steel substrate during chemical vapour deposition of titanium carbide

A condensed presentation of the decarburization problem encountered in the chemical vapour deposition of titanium carbide on steel substrates and of the solutions proposed up to now to remedy such an effect is given. On the basis of thermodynamic calculations, a new approach to the problem is proposed which allows the most appropriate deposition conditions to be chosen. Special care is exercised to study the role of the partial molar fraction of titanium tetrachloride. The proposed solution is then checked by additional experiments.