ABSTRACT
The impact of the heating rate on the Ni content at the surface of the oxide layer of biomedical NiTi is explored. Heat treatment emulating common shape-setting procedures was performed by means of conventional and inductive heating for similar annealing time and temperature, applying various heating rates from ~0.25 K s(-1) to 250 K s(-1). A glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy method was established and employed to evaluate concentration profiles of Ni, Ti and O in the near-surface region at high resolution. The Ni content at the surface of the differently treated samples varies significantly, with maximum surface Ni concentrations of ~20 at.% at the lowest and ~1.5 at.% at the highest heating rate, i.e. the total amount of Ni contained in the surface region of the oxide layer decreases by >15 times. Consequently, the heating rate is a determinant for the biomedical characteristics of NiTi, especially since Ni available at the surface of the oxide layer may affect the hemocompatibility and be released promptly after surgical application of a respective implant. Furthermore, apparently contradictory results presented in the literature reporting surface Ni concentrations of ~3 at.% to >20 at.% after heat treatment are consistently explained considering the ascertained effect of the heating rate.
