Growth of nanotubular oxide layer on Ti-Ni alloys with different Ni contents

Abstract Anodization of near-equiatomic Ti-Ni alloys was performed in an ethylene glycol based electrolyte under various conditions in order to investigate the effects of crystal structure and chemical composition of the Ti-Ni alloy on the morphology of the resulting oxide layers. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that Ti-Ni substrates with Ni content lower than 50.0 at.% were in the martensitic phase, while substrates with Ni content higher than 50.0 at.% were in the austenitic phase. Oxide layers formed at 20 or 35 V for 5 min exhibited no distinct nanotubular structures; however, at 50 V, nanotubular oxide layers were formed. After anodization at 50 V for 20 min, the growth of an irregular-shaped porous layer underneath the nanotubular oxide layer was observed for Ti-Ni alloys with Ni content lower than 52.2 at.%, whereas the oxide layer consisted of only irregular-shaped porous structures for the Ti-52.5 at.% Ni alloy. Further anodization resulted in the formation of irregular-shaped porous oxide layers on all Ti-Ni alloys examined. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis indicated that this morphological transition is related to Ni accumulation in the vicinity of the interface between the bottoms of the oxide layers and the surfaces of the substrate alloys. Therefore, nanotubular oxide layers cannot be grown, and instead irregular-shaped porous oxide layers are formed underneath the nanotubular layers. These results indicate that the morphology of anodic oxide layers formed on the near-equiatomic Ti-Ni alloys is not affected by their crystal structure, but by Ni content and anodization time.