Passivity of titanium, part 1: film growth model diagnostics

Abstract

Diagnostic criteria for the growth of the anodic oxide film on titanium in H2SO4 are reported. The criteria apply to the generalized high field model, which postulates that the electric field within the film is dependent upon the film thickness, and the point defect model, which describes the electric field as being constant during film growth. The diagnostic criteria show that the PDM more realistically models film growth than does the HFM, and we conclude that in this system the electric field strength is invariant with applied voltage and film thickness. The constancy of the electric field in the passive film on titanium, as demonstrated in this work, is attributed to band-to-band Esaki tunneling, which buffers the electric field against changes in the applied voltage and film thickness.