The isothermal oxidation process in bulk and powdered Ni2AITi (L21 structure) has been studied in the temperature range of 600 to 1200°C in air by means of X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. At 900 and 1200 ° C, the transient oxides, NiO and TiO2 were formed in the initial stage on the outer surface. Subsequent oxidation was dominated by outward diffusion of aluminium, resulting in the formation of a Ni3Ti layer beneath an internal precipitation layer containing AI203-NiAI204 aggregates, NiTiO 3 and Ni3Ti. Formation of NiTiO3 and NiAI204 at the expense of NiO, Ti02 and AI203 indicated the reaction among constituent oxides also occurred in the late stage of oxidation at 900 and 1200 °c. Only NiO and TiOz were identified in specimens oxidized at 600°C up to 24h. The oxidation rate of NizAITi is of the same order of magnitude as the dilute y-NiAI alloy at 1200 °C.
IntroductionAluminized coatings prepared on nickel-based superalloys by the pack cementation method provide better protection against high temperature oxidation and hot corrosion than do the uncoated substrates [1][2][3][4]. It was generally accepted that the interdiffusion between aluminium and nickel resulted in a/?-NiAI phase on the alloy surface which improved both the hot corrosion and the oxidation resistance [1, 2, 5]. According to metallographic, compositional and X-ray diffraction studies [1][2][3][4][5], high temperature oxidation resulted in the formation of the sesquioxide layer which resisted further oxidation of the aluminized coatings on superalloys. A recent transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study of the oxidation products of the aluminized coatings on Rene 80 indicated that the cubic oxides (RO and R304) and the sesquioxide (R203) , where R represents cations, have preferred orientation relationships to the gamma phase initially. However, such crystallographic relationships disappeared when the oxide particles were greater than a certain critical size [6]. Gamma phase, gamma prime phase and Ni2A1 phase were formed by the degradation of the beta phase in the coating and had preferred orientation relationships to the beta phase [6].Recent scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) studies of the aluminized coatings on the nickel-based superalloys of Ren6 80, INTI3LC and MAR-M247 showed that the beta matrix in diffusion zone may not necessarily be of B2 (NiAI) structure but can also be of L2~ (Ni2A1Ti) structure depending on the titanium content of the alloy [7,8]. The high temperature creep study of polycrystalline NizA1Ti [9] found that the creep strength of Ni2 A1Ti is about three times that of NiA1. The deformation behaviour of single-and polycrystaltine specimens of Ni2A1Ti were tested in compression in the temperature range 923 to 1283°K and the operative slip systems characterized