Unmasking the anomalous rapid oxidation of refractory TiB2 at low temperatures

As a refractory transition-metal diboride, monolithic TiB2 oxidizes at temperatures below 400 °C. Here, we performed detailed microstructural investigations to study the low-temperature oxidation mechanism of monolithic TiB2. An anomalous rapid oxidation behavior is observed at ∼ 500 °C, where the oxidation rate is much higher than that at a higher temperature of 650 °C. The anomalous rapid oxidation behavior originates from an unreported...