Effect of low-temperature annealing on the superelastic response and electrochemical corrosion behaviour of equi-atomic Ni-Ti alloy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Nickel–Titanium (Ni–Ti) alloys have exemplary properties such as good thermo-mechanical response and biocompatibility. Hence, they are one of the prime materials of interest in today’s context for the fabrication of advanced biomedical devices. Such properties can be exemplified with certain techniques such as heat-treatment techniques. However, peer-reviewed literature for the same appears to be inadequate to efficiently quantify the effect of such techniques on the overall performance of such materials. Therefore, the present study focuses on analysing the effect of low-temperature heat treatment on the superelastic behaviour and corrosion resistance of titanium-rich Ni–Ti alloys. The superelastic behaviour has been evaluated for different strains. Meanwhile, the Tafel extrapolation method is incorporated to assess the electrochemical corrosion of these materials. It is noticed that the low-temperature heat treatment has marginal effects on the superelastic behaviour of the alloy. The Ni–Ti alloy annealed at 450°C at 6% predetermined strain rate showed the best enhancement in the superelastic behaviour and the corrosion resistance increased upto treatment temperatures of 350°C. Therefore, the most optimum temperature of annealing is found to be 350°C, resulting in about 35.72% improvement in the corrosion resistance of the alloy when compared to their untreated counterparts.