Microstructure and abrasive wear behaviour of anodizing composite films containing SiC nanoparticles on Ti6Al4V alloy

Abstract

Anodized composite films containing SiC nanoparticles were synthesized on Ti6Al4V alloy by anodic oxidation procedure in C₄O₆H₄Na₂ electrolyte. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to characterize the morphology and composition of the films fabricated in the electrolytes with and without addition of SiC nanoparticles. Results show that SiC particles can be successfully incorporated into the oxide film during the anodizing process and preferentially concentrate within internal cavities and micro-cracks. The ball-on-disk sliding tests indicate that SiC-containing oxide films register much lower wear rate than the oxide films without SiC under dry sliding condition. SiC particles are likely to melt and then are oxidized by frictional heat during sliding tests. Potentiodynamic polarization behavior reveals that the anodized alloy with SiC nanoparticles results in a reduction in passive current density to about 1.54×10⁻⁸ A/cm², which is more than two times lower than that of the TiO₂ film (3.73×10⁻⁸ A/cm²). The synthesized composite film has good anti-wear and anti-corrosion properties and the growth mechanism of nanocomposite film is also discussed.

Keywords

Ti6Al4V alloy / anodic oxidation / SiC nanoparticle / composite film

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