Corrosion behavior of an Al–Sn–Zn alloy: Effects of solidification microstructure characteristics

Abstract

Due to its strong influence on service life of manufactured parts, corrosion resistance is an important factor to consider when designing Al alloys for engineering applications. With this in mind, the present study focuses on understanding the role of microstructure features in the corrosion behavior of an Al-10wt.%Sn-5wt.%Zn alloy. Samples with different microstructural length scales were subjected to corrosion tests, which were performed using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization. An equivalent circuit analysis was also carried out. The results revealed a relatively high electrochemical activity of the studied alloy. Furthermore, coarsening in microstructure showed a slight tendency towards improvements in the corrosion resistance, that is, coarser microstructures composed by Al-rich dendrites surrounded by Sn–Zn constituent particles were comparatively less prone to corrosion degradation than finer ones. Finally, the proposed equivalent circuit model is shown to have good agreement with the experimental EIS measurements.

Keywords

• Solidification
• Microstructure
• Corrosion resistance