Advanced Powder Technology, Vol.29, No.4, 1005-1013, 2018
Fabrication and characterization of NiTi shape memory alloy synthesized by Ni electroless plating of titanium powder
In this work NiTi shape memory alloy was fabricated from mixed elemental powders, Ni plated titanium powder and Ni heated/plated titanium powder by Ar-sintering. Electroless plating process was utilized to fabricate Ni plated titanium powder. For this purpose titanium powder was plated in an electroless Ni bath for 225 min and hydrazine hydrate was used as a reductant to deposit pure nickel on the titanium particles. Ni plated titanium powder was heat treated under an argon atmosphere at 1000 degrees C to prepare Ni heated/plated titanium powder. Finally, the three sample powders were pressed by CIP followed by sintering at 980 degrees C for 8 h to manufacture NiTi shape memory alloy. The prepared powders, as well as sintered samples, were characterized by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer analysis (EDS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetric (DSC). The results indicated the presence of NiTi phase and also non-transformable phases (NiTi2 and Ni3Ti) in the heated/plated Ti powder and sintered samples. NiTi compound was dominated phase in the heated/plated sintered sample. All three sintered samples, as well as heated/plated powder, showed one-step phase transformation (B2 <-> B19'). (C) 2018 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.