Extremely high pitting resistance of NiTi shape memory alloy thin film in simulated body fluids

In this paper the corrosion behavior of NiTi thin films fabricated by sputtering from Ni and Ti targets has been studied by cyclic potentiodynamic polarization tests in Hank's and Ringer's solution at 310 K. For comparison, bulk NiTi Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) has also been studied to elucidate the different corrosion behavior of bulk and thin film material. The electrochemical experiments reveal that thin film NiTi SMA has comparable corrosion current density (icorr), much higher pitting corrosion potentials and wider passive range than the bulk NiTi. We show that NiTi SMA vapour deposited thin films are less susceptible to pitting corrosion than the bulk.