High temperature corrosion study on CVD-MWCNT reinforced aluminium nanocomposites

Abstract

Aluminium MWCNT nanocomposites were developed using compo- casting technique for homogeneous dispersion of reinforcement into the matrix material. The developed nanocomposite materials were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) method. The surface morphology of AA5083 and nanocomposites samples after immersion was studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The corrosion resistance of MWCNT reinforced aluminium in 1 N sodium hydroxide was studied by weight loss method, electrochemical experiments such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarisation methods. Results show, MWCNT reinforced alloy have lower corrosion rates and higher corrosion protection compared to that of unreinforced alloy. The experiments were carried out by changing immersion time from 1–6 h and varying bath temperatures from 303–323 K. The obtained results indicate, at ambient temperature AA5083—MWCNT composites have better corrosion resistance than the AA5083 matrix material and corrosion resistance decreases when the bath temperature increases.