Effect of hot rolling and subsequent annealing on electrochemical discharge behavior of AP65 magnesium alloy as anode for seawater activated battery

The electrochemical discharge behavior of AP65 magnesium alloys under different conditions in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution was investigated by electrochemical techniques and compared with that of pure magnesium and AZ31 magnesium alloy. The results show that the hot rolled AP65 alloy after subsequent annealing at 150 degrees C for 4 h exhibits stronger discharge activity and higher utilization efficiency than the other alloys, attributed to its fine grains, good compositional homogeneity of magnesium matrix, and low density of crystalline defects. This result reveals that hot rolling and subsequent annealing is an effective approach to boost the discharge performance of AP65 alloy. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.