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The oxidation kinetics of high-purity nickel were studied between 500 and 1200°C, in pure oxygen at atmospheric pressure, for average oxide-scale thicknesses of 1, 5, 10, and 30 μm. In the overall temperature range studied, a decrease in the parabolic rate constant kp with increasing scale thickness was observed. Depending on temperature and oxide-scale thickness, growth kinetics can be interpreted as a mixture of parabolic- and cubic-growth kinetics. Possible correlations between growth kinetics and microstructures of the oxide scales were investigated. From this set of experimental data, oxidation-kinetics models were tested. In particular, the effect of grain-boundary diffusion on NiO-growth kinetics was discussed. The correlations between growth kinetics and oxide microstructures appear to be more complex than usually reported.

The isothermal oxidation of Pd-modified Ni aluminide coatings was studied as a function of Po2 and temperature (900–1200 °C). A kinetic transition was observed between 900 and 1000 °C. Grazing incident x-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy, and secondary ion mass spectrometry analyses are consistent with the growth of δ-alumina or α-alumina below or above this transition temperature. Moreover, because Po2 was established before specimen heating, an effect of heating rate was observed and analyzed. More importantly, no kinetic transition was observed for sand-blasted specimens oxidized at low Po2. Thus conditions for the direct growth of an α-alumina scale could be determined from the reported results.