The Importance of the Fluorine Effect on the Oxidation of Intermetallic Titanium Aluminides

Abstract

Due to the low Al activity within technical titanium aluminides and the similar thermodynamic stabilities of Al-and Ti-oxide these alloys always form a mixed oxide scale at elevated temperatures consisting of TiO 2 ,A l 2 O 3 and also nitrides if the exposure takes place in air. This mixed scale does not provide any oxidation protection especially under thermocyclic load or in water vapor containing environments. Thus accelerated oxidation occurs. Alloying of additional elements such as Nb improves the oxidation behavior if the additions stay within a certain concentration range but such additions cannot suppress non-protective mixed scale formation. Coatings are another way to protect these materials but several obstacles and new degradation mechanisms exist such as delamination e.g. due to CTE mismatch or development of brittle intermetallic phases due to interdiffusion. Therefore, other suitable protective measures have to be undertaken to make sure a protective oxide scale will develop. The so called halogen effect is a very promising way to change the oxidation mechanism from mixed scale formation to alumina formation. After optimized halogen treatment the alumina layer is very protective up to several thousand hours even under thermocyclic load and in atmospheres containing water vapor or SO 2 .