Comparative studies on the corrosion behavior of some Zr-based amorphous alloys having different compositions in nitric acid medium

Abstract

Abstract The corrosion studies were performed on different composition of Zr-based bulk amorphous ribbon alloys such as Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10, Zr60Nb2Cu20Ni8Al10, Zr59Nb3Cu20Ni8Al10, Zr57Nb5Cu20Ni8Al10 and Zr60Pd5Cu15Ni10Al10 alloys at room temperature. The amorphous nature of all the above mentioned alloys was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The corrosion behavior was investigated using potentiodynamic polarization and weight loss analysis methods at room temperature. Surface morphology of these corroded samples were investigated by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results of the investigations revealed the fact that Nb containing Zr-based bulk amorphous alloys shows better corrosion resistance among all the investigated alloys due to the presence of Nb2O5. The presence of Nb2O5 on the surface of Nb containing Zr-based bulk amorphous alloy after immersion in HNO3 medium was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques.