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Flowing gaseous ammonia NH3 with suppressed extent of dissociation (un‐cracked NH3) is acknowledged to function as a powerful nitriding medium to realize formation of metal nitride MNx with considerably high N/M ratio x that cannot be achieved through reaction of M with N2 gas. For example, mono‐nitride δ‐MoN of Mo and ε‐FeNx phase of Fe with x = 0.33 ˜ 0.50 (i. e. hypo‐stoichiometric sub‐nitride ε‐Fe2N) were reported to be difficult to prepare in N2 gas environment even at elevated pressure but might be synthesized in flowing NH3 gas at normal pressure when reaction temperature and NH3 gas flow rate were set adequately. In the present work, nitriding experiments for Mo and Fe were carried out in flowing NH3 gas under irradiation with concentrated solar beam. The acquired experimental evidences demonstrated that temperature range for formation of δ‐MoN was somewhat extended in flowing NH3 gas under heating with concentrated solar beam compared with that under heating in conventional laboratory or industrial electric furnace. On the other hand, no such merit of extending temperature range for formation of ε‐Fe2N in flowing NH3 gas was detected in the present work under heating with concentrated solar beam.

In equilibrium binary W-C system, mono-carbide WC is acknowledged as the stable phase under presence of excess free carbon up to temperature 2700 C whereas sub-carbide W 2 C would form between 1250 C and 2700 C under the carbon-deficiency condition. In unique setup of solar furnace at PROMES-CNRS in Odeillo (France), temperature of specimen is raised from the ambient temperature to target temperature up to 2000 C within fractions of a second. In the recent experimental attempts of W 2 C phase synthesis using this unique experimental facility starting from compacted pellet consisted of graphite and tungsten powders at ratios smaller than 0.50, we detected growth of nano-meter size WC whisker at the top surface directly exposed to the concentrated solar beam. The presence of WC was confirmed also by X-ray diffraction (XRD) of the top surface but, when the specimen as a whole was subjected to powder XRD analysis, WC became indiscernible being masked by principal W 2 C phase. Mechanism of formation of the detected WC nano-whisker over sub-stoichiometric C/W pellet during ultra-fast heating by concentrated solar beam is discussed.