en Research Paper Research Paper <p>Abstract: The possibility of vanadium carbide coating formation on AISI L2 steel was studied in molten salt bath containing 33 wt% NaCl- 67 wt% CaCl2. In this research, the effects of time, temperature and bath composition on growing layer thickness were studied. The vanadium carbide coating treatment was performed in the NaCl-CaCl2 bath at 1173, 1273 and 1373 K temperatures for 3, 6, 9 hours and in bath containing 5, 10, 15, 25 wt% ferrovanadium. The presence of VC formed on the surface of the steel substrate was confirmed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis. The layer thickness of vanadium carbide and surface hardness ranged between 4.8 to 25.7 &micro;m and 2645 to 3600 HV, respectively. The kinetics of layer growth was analyzed by measuring the depth of vanadium carbide layer as a function of time and temperature. The mean activation energy for the process is estimated to be 133 kJ/ mol.</p> Vanadium carbide, TRD, Layer thickness, Kinetics, AISI L2 50 56 http://ijmse.iust.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-3-42&slc_lang=en&sid=1 M. Mossanef mahsa.mossanef@gmail.com 180031947532846004009 180031947532846004009 Yes M. Soltanieh 180031947532846004010 180031947532846004010 No