High temperature reactivity of nickel aluminide diffusion coatings

The high-temperature oxidation behaviour of nickel aluminides has been studied at 900 °C in air under atmospheric pressure. Yttria doped and undoped specimens of nickel were aluminised and then oxidised for 100 h under isothermal and cycling conditions. The results showed that when yttria is added by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition technique prior to the aluminisation process, it increased the oxidation rate of aluminised nickel, but improved the oxide scale adherence under cyclic conditions. The effects of yttria on the scale morphology, oxidation behaviour and scale spallation tendency are discussed based on the experimental results, using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analyses (EDX).