Oxidation Behavior of Zr–1Nb Corroded in Air at 400 °C after Plasma Immersion Titanium Implantation

In this paper, the influence of plasma immersion titanium implantation into the zirconium alloy Zr-1Nb on the oxidation behavior at 400 °C for 5, 24, 72, and 240 h in air under normal atmospheric pressure (101.3 kPa) was shown. The influence of implantation on the protective properties of the modified layer was shown. The valence of the oxides before and after implantation was analyzed by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) was carried out to examine the phase composition after titanium ion implantation and oxidation. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed that titanium implantation exhibited effects of stabilizing the β phase. The formation of the t-ZrO2 and m-ZrO2 was observed during the oxidation of the as-received and modified Zr-1Nb. The measurement of weight gain showed an improvement in oxidation resistance of Ti implanted Zr-1Nb at the oxidation up to 24 h when compared with that of the as-received Zr-1Nb. However, at longer oxidation cycle the oxidation rate of Ti-implanted zirconium alloy is the same with the as-received alloy, which attributed to the layer thickness. Nevertheless, the corrosion of the Ti-implanted alloy is more uniform, while a local corrosion and cracks was detected on the surface of the as-received alloy.