Anodic oxidation of zirconium : Effect of fluoride contamination on oxide structure and transport processes

Evidence produced by XPS confirms previous work concerning contamination of anodic oxides both from Zr substrates after pre-treatment and from Zr electrolyte. The incorporated F exp - in ZrO sub 2 appears to promote amorphous or microcrystalline, rather than macrocrystalline oxides. However, the observed change in structure in the presence of residual F exp - cannot be interpreted in terms of an expected shift in the ionic transport numbers.