Electrochemical behavior of multicomponent amorphous and nanocrystalline Zr-based alloys in different environments

Electrochemical behavior of multicomponent melt spun Zr-based amorphous as well as nanocrystalline alloys have been studied in three different corrosive media (neutral NaCl, basic NaOH and acidic H2SO4 solutions). Due to the presence of strong passivating elements, (Zr and Ti) melt spun ternary alloys (Zr55T25Ni20) have shown complete passivation in NaCl solution even as they contain a small amount of crystallinity. Amorphous multicomponent alloys containing Cu (Zr58Cu28Al10Ti4 and Zr65Cu7.5Al7.5Ni10Pd10) show active nature in NaCl solution and this is strongly related to selective dissolution of base metal (Zr) and enrichment of Cu in the pit region. In NaOH and H2SO4 solutions, all the alloys have shown complete passivation irrespective of the alloy composition. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.