A method may include annealing a material including iron and nitrogen in the presence of an applied magnetic field to form at least one Fe.sub.16N.sub.2 phase domain. The applied magnetic field may have a strength of at least about 0.2 Tesla (T).

In general, the disclosure is directed to bulk iron-nitride materials having a polycrystalline microstructure having pores including a plurality of crystallographic grains surrounded by grain boundaries, where at least one crystallographic grain includes an iron-nitride phase including any of a body centered cubic (bcc) structure, a body centered tetragonal (bct), and a martensite structure. The disclosure further describes techniques producing a bulk iron-nitride material having a polycrystalline microstructure, including: melting an iron source to obtain a molten iron source; fast belt casting the molten iron source to obtain a cast iron source; cooling and shaping the cast iron source to obtain a bulk iron-containing material having a body-centered cubic (bcc) structure; annealing the bulk iron-containing material at an austenite transformation temperature and subsequently cooling the bulk iron-containing material; and nitriding the bulk iron-containing material to obtain the bulk iron-nitride material.

A three-dimensional object made of a bulk nitride, carbide, or boride-containing material may be manufactured using a powder bed fusion additive manufacturing technique. A layer of powder feed material may be distributed over a solid substrate and scanned with a high-energy laser beam to locally melt selective regions of the layer and form a pool of molten feed material. The pool of molten feed material may be exposed to gaseous nitrogen, carbon, or boron to respectively dissolve nitride, carbide, or boride ions into the pool of molten feed material to produce a molten nitrogen, carbon, or boron-containing solution. The molten nitrogen, carbon, or boron-containing solution may cool and solidify into a solid layer of fused nitride, carbide, or boride-containing material. In one form, the three-dimensional object may comprise a permanent magnet made up of a plurality of solid layers of fused iron nitride material having a magnetic Fe.sub.16N.sub.2 phase.

A method for producing a metal nitride and/or a metal carbide, a metal nitride and/or metal carbide optionally produced according to the method, and the use of the metal nitride and/or carbide in catalysis optionally catalytic hydroprocessing. Optionally, the method comprises: i) contacting at least one metal oxide comprising at least one first metal M.sup.1 with a cyanometallate comprising at least one second metal M.sup.2 to form a reaction mixture; and, ii) subjecting the reaction mixture to a temperature of at least 300° C. for a reaction period. Optionally, the metal nitride and/or metal carbide is a metal nitride comprising tungsten nitride.

A method for manufacturing nitride catalyst is provided, which includes putting a Ru target and an M target into a nitrogen-containing atmosphere, in which M is Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Cr, V, Ti, Cu, or Zn. The method also includes providing powers to the Ru target and the M target, respectively. The method also includes providing ions to bombard the Ru target and the M target for depositing M.sub.xRu.sub.yN.sub.2 on a substrate by sputtering, wherein 0<x<1.3, 0.7<y<2, and x+y=2, wherein M.sub.xRu.sub.yZ.sub.2 is cubic crystal system or amorphous.

A method may include annealing a material including iron and nitrogen in the presence of an applied magnetic field to form at least one Fe.sub.16N.sub.2 phase domain. The applied magnetic field may have a strength of at least about 0.2 Tesla (T).

A method for manufacturing nitride catalyst is provided, which includes putting a Ru target and an M target into a nitrogen-containing atmosphere, in which M is Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Cr, V, Ti, Cu, or Zn. The method also includes providing powers to the Ru target and the M target, respectively. The method also includes providing ions to bombard the Ru target and the M target for depositing M.sub.xRu.sub.yN.sub.2 on a substrate by sputtering, wherein 0<x<1.3, 0.7<y<2, and x+y=2, wherein M.sub.xRu.sub.yZ.sub.2 is cubic crystal system or amorphous.

A process for producing an ordered martensitic iron nitride powder that is suitable for use as a permanent magnetic material is provided. The process includes fabricating an iron alloy powder having a desired composition and uniformity; nitriding the iron alloy powder by contacting the material with a nitrogen source in a fluidized bed reactor to produce a nitride iron powder; transforming the nitride iron powder to a disordered martensitic phase; annealing the disordered martensitic phase to an ordered martensitic phase; and separating the ordered martensitic phase from the iron nitride powder to yield an ordered martensitic iron nitride powder.

A main object of the present disclosure is to provide an active material of which capacity properties are excellent. The present disclosure achieves the object by providing an active material to be used for a fluoride ion battery, the active material comprising: a composition represented by M.sup.1N.sub.x in which M.sup.1 is at least one kind of Cu, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, Zn, Nb, In, Sn, Ta, W, and Bi, and x satisfies 0.05x3; or a composition represented by M.sup.2Ln.sub.yN.sub.z in which M.sup.2 is at least one kind of Cu, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, Zn, Nb, In, Sn, Ta, W, and Bi, Ln is at least one kind of Sc, Y, and lanthanoid, y satisfies 0.1y3, and z satisfies 0.15z6.

Processes for the generation of thin inorganic films on substrates, in particular atomic layer deposition processes. In particular, a process of bringing a compound of general formula (I) into the gaseous or aerosol state
L.sub.n - - - M - - - X.sub.m(I)
and depositing the compound of general formula (I) from the gaseous or aerosol state onto a solid substrate, wherein
M is a metal,
L is a ligand which coordinates to M and contains at least one phosphorus-carbon multiple bond, wherein L contains a phosphorus-containing heterocyclic ring or a phosphorus-carbon triple bond,
X is a ligand which coordinates to M,
n is 1 to 5, and
m is 0 to 5.