Morphology and growth of porous anodic oxide films on Ti-10V-2Fe-3Al in neutral tartrate solution

Porous anodic oxide films were fabricated galvanostatically on titanium alloy Ti-10V-2Fe-3Al in ammonium tartrate solution with different anodizing time. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) were used to investigate the morphology evolution of the anodic oxide film. It is shown that above the breakdown voltage, oxygen is generated with the occurrence of drums morphology. These drums grow and extrude, which yields the compression stress. Subsequently, microcracks are generated. With continuous anodizing, porous oxides form at the microcracks. Those oxides grow and connect to each other, finally replace the microcrack morphology. The depth profile of the anodic oxide film formed at 1 800 s was examined by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). It is found that the film is divided into three layers according to the molar fractions of elements. The outer layer is incorporated by carbon, which may come from electrolyte solution. The thickness of the outer layer is approximately 0.2–0.3 μm. The molar fractions of elements in the intermediate layer are extraordinarily stable, while those in the inner layer vary significantly with sputtering depth. The thicknesses of the intermediate layer and the inner layer are 2 μm and 1.0–1.5 μm, respectively. Moreover, the growth mechanism of porous anodic oxide films in neutral tartrate solution was proposed.