Effects of Carbon Ion Implantation on Surface Performance of Modified NiTi Shape Memory Alloy

Abstract

In this paper, carbon ion implantation was performed on the surface of modified nitinol alloy (NiTi) wafers. NiTi wafers are modified by nanosecond laser followed with or without fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) modification process. The influences of carbon ion implantation on surface morphology, surface wettability and chemical compositions were assessed by scanning electronic microscope (SEM), goniometer and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) respectively. The results show that the effects of carbon implantation on modified NiTi surface have a strong relationship with FAS modification process. After the FAS modification, carbon ion implantation will change surface visually images by chemical influence but surface morphology didn’t change. The water contact angles (WCAs) will decrease by carbon ion implantation for all FAS modified surfaces in contrary to a magnification influence for wafers without FAS modification process. In addition, it turns out to be faint for carbon ion implantation to increase surface carbon content.