Corrosion Behavior of Nano-/Ultrafine-Grained Al-0.2 wt.% Sc Alloy Produced by Accumulative Roll Bonding (ARB)

The corrosion behavior of the Al-0.2 wt.% Sc alloy fabricated by the accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process in a 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution was studied using the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization techniques. The effect of the microstructural parameters, such as dislocation density, texture, grain boundary, and lattice strain, on the corrosion behavior was also investigated in this study. The results demonstrated that the ARB process can significantly improve the corrosion resistance and modify the corrosion potential to attain higher positive potentials. In addition, the pitting corrosion changed into the lateral spreading of the pits at the seventh and tenth cycles of the ARB process with average grain size of 410 and 370 nm, respectively. The change in the fraction of the high-angle grain boundary during the ARB process is the most important parameter regarding the variation in corrosion type. The average grain size of 410 nm in seventh cycle, as the optimum average grain size, demonstrated the highest corrosion resistance.