Synergistic Tribo-corrosion Behavior of TC4 Ti-alloy in Artificial Seawater Containing Sulfur Ions

doi:10.11902/1005.4537.2025.044

Journal of Chinese Society for Corrosion and protection

2025, Vol. 45

Issue (6): 1764-1772 DOI: 10.11902/1005.4537.2025.044

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Synergistic Tribo-corrosion Behavior of TC4 Ti-alloy in Artificial Seawater Containing Sulfur Ions

WANG Jie¹^,², ZHAO Pingping², WANG Chunting², ZHU Tingting², YANG Lijing²(

), SONG Zhenlun²

1 Faculty of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
2 State Key Laboratory of Advanced Marine Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China

Cite this article:

WANG Jie, ZHAO Pingping, WANG Chunting, ZHU Tingting, YANG Lijing, SONG Zhenlun. Synergistic Tribo-corrosion Behavior of TC4 Ti-alloy in Artificial Seawater Containing Sulfur Ions. Journal of Chinese Society for Corrosion and protection, 2025, 45(6): 1764-1772.

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Abstract

Sulfide is very common in special marine environments, such as microbial metabolism process, deep-sea hydrothermal area, industrial pollution area etc. In this study, the corrosion and wear process of TC4 Ti-alloy was monitored in situ by electrochemical technology, and the wear volume was quantified by step profiler and 3D profilometer. The microstructure and composition were characterized by scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometer. The effect of sulfur ion concentration on the corrosion-wear dynamic damage process of TC4 Ti-alloy in 3.5%NaCl solution was systematically revealed. The results show that the total corrosion wear amount of TC4 Ti-alloy increases significantly with the increase of sulfur ion concentrations, and the wear mechanism changes from pure abrasive wear to the composite mechanism of abrasive and fatigue wear. During the corrosion wear process, when the sulfur ion concentrations increased from 0 to 60 mmol/L, the OCP of TC4 Ti-alloy decreased by about 400 mV. At the same time, the corrosion current density increased by nearly 2 orders of magnitude. The interactive quantitative analysis of corrosion and wear shows that the proportion of corrosion-promoted wear components increased from 2.94% to 5.59%. The sulfur ion in the 3.5%NaCl solution destroyed the passivation film on the surface of the TC4 Ti-alloy, accelerated the local corrosion and aggravated the secondary dissolution of the wear scar area, which eventually led to the significant enhancement of the coupling damage effect of TC4 Ti-alloy during the corrosion wear process. This study provides an important reference for the durability design of titanium alloy components in marine equipment operating in a sulfur-containing medium environment.

Key words: TC4 Ti-alloy sulfur ions tribo-corrosion coupling damage electrochemistry

Received: 13 February 2025 32134.14.1005.4537.2025.044

ZTFLH:

TG174

Fund: National Key Research and Development Program of China(2022YFB3808800);Municipal Key R&D Program of Ningbo(2024Z130)

Corresponding Authors: YANG Lijing, E-mail: yanglj@nimte.ac.cn

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	WANG Jie
	ZHAO Pingping
	WANG Chunting
	ZHU Tingting
	YANG Lijing
	SONG Zhenlun

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https://www.jcscp.org/EN/10.11902/1005.4537.2025.044 OR https://www.jcscp.org/EN/Y2025/V45/I6/1764

Fig.1 SEM image (a) and enlarged image (b) of microstructure of TC4 Ti-alloy

Fig.2 Potentiodynamic polarization curves of TC4 Ti-alloy in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing 0, 20, 40 and 60 mmol/L S^2- under static corrosion (a) and tribocorrosion (c) conditions, and 0 mmol/L S^2- under corrosion and tribocorrosion conditions (b)

Table 1 Fitting results of potentiodynamic polarization curves of TC4 Ti-alloy in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing different concentration of S^2-

Fig.3 Open-circuit potential changes of TC4 Ti-alloy during tribo-corrosion in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing different concentration of S^2-

Fig.4 Friction coefficient curves of TC4 Ti-alloy in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing different concentration of S^2-

Fig.5 3D profile images of TC4 Ti-alloy after tribo-corrosion in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing 0 (a), 20 (b), 40 (c) and 60 (d) mmol/L S^2-

Table 2 Parameters of wear marks of TC4 Ti-alloy after corrosive wear in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing different concentration of S^2-

Fig.6 Surface morphologies of TC4 Ti-alloy after tribocorrosion in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing 0 (a1-a3), 20 (b1-b3), 40 (c1-c3) and 60 (d1-d3) mmol/L S^2-

Fig.7 EDS analysis results of the worn regions of TC4 Ti-alloy after friction in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing 0 (a) and 60 (b) mmol/L of S^2-

Table 3 Individual volume loss components of TC4 Ti-alloy after tribo-corrosion in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing different concentration of S^2-(10^-³ mm³ )

Fig.8 Proportions of each volume loss to the total volume loss for TC4 Ti-alloy after tribo-corrosion in 3.5%NaCl solutions containing 0 (a), 20 (b), 40 (c) and 60 (d) mmol/L S^2-

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