Effects of Ti and Zr elements addition on the microstructure and corrosion resistance of Zn-2.5Al-2Mg alloy

In this article, the effects of Ti and Zr elements addition on the microstructure and corrosion resistance of Zn-2.5Al-2Mg alloy were studied. The microstructure, micro hardness, corrosion resistance of Zn-2.5Al-2Mg alloy were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Rockwell hardness tester and Electrochemical workstation, respectively. The result shows that the solidified structure of Zn-2.5Al-2Mg alloys was refined by Al3Ti, Al3Zr and Al-3(Ti, Zr) which act as a heterogeneous nucleation site. Moreover, the Rockwell hardness of Zn-2.5Al-2Mg alloys with the addition of Zr was significantly increased. The hardness of this alloy with the same amount of Zr and Ti addition is lower than that of the alloy with Zr addition alone, but obviously higher than that of the alloy with Ti alone. The corrosion resistance of the Zn-2.5Al-2Mg alloys with the same amount of Zr and Ti addition was improved significantly.