Inhibitive effect of Ce(III) and La(III) cations for AA2219 aluminium alloy corrosion in sodium chloride medium

In this paper, the rare earth chlorides were used to mitigate the dealloying of Al2Cu intermetallic particles in aluminium alloy 2219-T87 plate exposed to 0.6 M NaCl solution. The negative shift of cathodic branches of potentiodynamic polarisation curves revealed the cathodic inhibition towards intermetallic dealloying. The low and high frequency time constants obtained from electrochemical impedance spectra revealed an increase in the corrosion resistance due to precipitation of rare earth oxides/hydroxides on the porous surface of native oxide film of aluminium alloy. Scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis and atomic force microscopy revealed that intermetallic inclusions are the sites for the formation of cerium and lanthanum deposits which suppress copper redeposition and minimise galvanic interactions between the matrix and Al2Cu particles.