Sulfur segregation in titanium and selected titanium alloys

Abstract The segregation of S in electrotransport-purified polycrystalline α-Ti and in several polycrystalline Ti alloys has been studied by Auger electron spectroscopy and ion scattering spectroscopy in the temperature range extending from 20 to 1000°C. The chemisorbed oxygen and carbon on Ti were observed to disappear at T ≈ 400°C after which the S signal increased to levels approaching 0.5 monolayer. At lower temperatures the presence of the surface oxygen and carbon appeared to inhibit the segregation, presumably because there were no available surfaces sites for the S emerging from the bulk. The activation energy for the S segregation in pure polycrystalline Ti was determined to be 16.7 kcal/mol, which, when compared to S segregation from single-crystal Ti, is quite small and suggest grain boundary or defect diffusion segregation kinetics. In the Ti-aluminide alloys, the presence of Al appeared to enhance the retention of surface oxygen which, in turn, substantially reduced the S segregation. The γ alloy, with its high Al content, exhibited the greatest retention of surface oxygen and the smallest quantity of S segregation ( T ≈ 1000°C). On the other hand, the β-21S alloy exhibited a greater segregation rate for the S than did α-Ti.