Application of AFM in a study of the selective oxidation behavior of materials during the early oxidation stage

The roughening kinetics of the oxide scales formed on a novel electrodeposited nanocomposite Ni–12.6 wt.% Cr having a nanocrystalline Ni matrix with a dispersion of Cr nanoparticles and on a conventional coarse-grained, chromia-forming Ni–20Cr alloy have been studied with atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results show that it is possible to use AFM to check the validity of the model proposed which links the selective oxidation behavior of the two materials with different roughening process.