A study of the behaviour of titanium in acidic solution. Part 1 — Anodic behaviour and behaviour in “ababdoned” conditions

Despite numerous investigations into the corrosion behaviour of Ti and its alloys there are numerous discrepancies in literature with respect to the type of the tetravalent ion formed during the dissolution of titanium in aerated acid solutions; the same applies to the thermodynamical data concerning a possible redox reaction between titanium ions having different valencies. It is for this reason that the authors make an attempt at showing the importance of the formation of tetravalent titanium ions during the spontaneous passivation of titanium in acidic solutions. In this context they start by studying the anodic behaviour of titanium, in order to work out a basis for the evaluation of specimens of different origin. The studies are carried out in aerated and deoxygenated sulfuric acid, with and without external polarization. The anodic behaviour is then interpreted in terms of the mixed potential theory.