Study of the Electrochemical Dissolution Behavior of Nitinol Shape Memory Alloy in Different Electrolytes for Micro-ECM Process

Nickel-Titanium alloy (Nitinol) is an excellent shape memory alloy (SMA) for Micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) particularly in biomedical applications owing to its three excellent features like shape memory effect (SME), superelasticity, and biocompatibility. The fabrication of micro features on Nitinol SMAs through conventional machining has been challenging due to its temperature-dependent material transformation properties. Micro electrochemical machining (micro-ECM), a nonconventional machining method for conductive material irrespective of strength and hardness has the potential for microfeature fabrication on Nitinol. This study presents the investigation on electrochemical dissolution behavior of Nitinol in different electrolytes for micro-ECM. The influence of electrolytes on the nature of dissolution of Nitinol has been studied by fabricating microchannels in three levels of parameters containing applied voltage and electrolyte concentration. The first three electrolytes were all aqueous neutral electrolytes i.e. sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium nitrate (NaNO3), and sodium bromide (NaBr). For profound analysis of dissolution behavior and its influence on machining performance, potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) tests of Nitinol were performed in aqueous NaCl, aqueous NaNO3, and aqueous NaBr solutions. The PDP tests that are conducted here are cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The three aqueous solutions were utilized for microchannel fabrication in Nitinol through micro ECM in three levels of parameters out of which aqueous NaNO3 was successful in fabricating microchannel. Then nonaqueous electrolyte of ethylene glycol-based NaNO3 has been used to fabricate microchannels with lower depth overcut (DOC), width overcut (WOC), and length overcut (LOC) with respect to aqueous NaNO3 electrolyte.

Electrochemical Dissolution Process of Tungsten Carbide in Low Temperature Molten Salt System

Tungsten was extracted from LiCl-KCl-Li2WO4 molten salt with tungsten carbide as soluble anode, and its electrochemical dissolution was studied. Although the fused salt electrochemical method has the advantages of short process and easy operation of the equipment, there are some problems in the current electrolysis process, such as higher electrolysis temperature, high energy consumption and complex composition of the products, in order to reduce the electrolysis temperature and energy consumption, tungsten was extracted by LiCl-KCl-Li2WO4 molten salt system at 400-600°C. In addition, compared with the blank salt electrolysis, the addition of Li2WO4 as the active material makes the reaction more likely to occur, and improves the dissolution efficiency and the current efficiency. Through a series of electrochemical tests, it is proved that adding Li2WO4 decreases the charge transfer resistance, speeds up the reaction and studies the oxidation-reduction process of tungsten ion in tungstate, it is proved that the redox process is a reversible process controlled by diffusion. Clusters of spherical tungsten powders were prepared at 500℃ by changing the experimental parameters to obtain the optimal conditions.

Studies on electrochemical dissolution of sintered molybdenum discs as a potential method for targets dissolution in 99mTc production

Electrochemical dissolution of pressed into discs and sintered metallic molybdenum powder with the mass of 712 ± 10 mg (n = 15) in potassium hydroxide solution was studied in detail. The technique was considered to apply for dissolution of irradiated 100Mo target in the 99mTc production. The effect of various parameters, e.g., the concentration of the electrolyte solution, temperature, current density, and surface area of the platinum cathode, was investigated. The shortest time for total dissolution of molybdenum target was 70 min. This result was achieved using an electrolyte solution of 5 M KOH, temperature 55 °C and the current density of 365 mA/cm2.

Nanostructures on the ZnSe Surface: Synthesis, Morphological and Photoluminescent Properties

Nanostructured zinc selenide has been obtained by electrochemical etching with an H2SO4:H2O:H2O5OH=4:1:1 solution used as the electrolyte. The experiment has indicated that the surface consists of two phases, namely the upper layer made up of a dense oxide film and a low-sized porous layer underneath, with a pore diameter of (30-80) nm and a thickness of interporous walls of (15-50) nm. The investigated dependence of surface porosity on the etching time allows us to explain the main stages of the crystal’s electrochemical dissolution during anodizing. The experiment has indicated the presence of three main stages, such as the formation of the Gouy and Helmholtz layers at the semiconductor/electrolyte segregation; pore formation at defect and oxide crystallite locations; spontaneous pore formation. The PL spectra of the samples under study have demonstrated three maxima. The emission band at 2.45 eV is attributable to the presence of oxides, the band at 2.78 EV can be accounted for the corresponding excitons while the band at 2.82 eV stems from quantum-dimensional effects. Chemical analysis of the samples has also indicated the presence of oxides on the surface of the nanostructure.