Morphological and Chemical Relationships in Nanotubes Formed by Anodizing of Ti6al4v Alloy

The electrochemical formation of oxide nanotubes on the Ti6Al4V alloy has been so far difficult due to easy dissolution of vanadium reach β-phase of the two phase material. Due to the topographical heterogeneity of the anodic layer in nano and microscale at anodizing of the Ti6Al4V alloy we focused to establish the relationships between nanotube diameters on both phases of the alloy and fluorides concentration in electrolyte. We studied the effect of fluoride concentration (0.5-0.7 wt.%) in 99% ethylene glycol on morphological parameters of nanotube layer on the Ti6Al4V alloy anodized at 20V for 20 min. Nanotubes with diameter ~40-50 nm ±5nm on the entire Ti6Al4V alloy surface in electrolyte containing 0.6% wt. NH4F were obtained. Microscale roughness studies revealed that nanotubular layer on α-phase is thicker than on β-phase. The annealing of nanotube layers at 600°C for 2h in air, nitrogen and argon, typically performed to improve their electrical properties, influenced chemical composition and morphology of nanotubes on the Ti6Al4V alloy. The vanadium oxides (VO2, V2O3, V2O5) were present in surface nanotube layer covering both phases of the alloy and the shape of nanotubes was preserved after annealing in nitrogen.