Influence of aluminum ions implanted on corrosion behavior of zirconium in 1 M H2SO4

Abstract

In order to study the effect of aluminum ion implantation on the aqueous corrosion behavior of zirconium, specimens were implanted with aluminum ions with fluence ranging from 1×1016 to 1×1017 ions/cm2, using a metal vapor vacuum arc source (MEVVA) at an extraction voltage of 40 kV. The valence states and depth distributions of elements in the surface layer of the samples were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and auger electron spectroscopy (AES), respectively. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to examine the microstructure of the aluminum-implanted samples. Glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GAXRD) was employed to examine the phase transformation due to the aluminum ion implantation. The potentiodynamic polarization technique was employed to evaluate the aqueous corrosion resistance of implanted zirconium in a 1 M H2SO4 solution. It was found that a significant improvement was achieved in the aqueous corrosion resistance of zirconium implanted with aluminum ions. Finally, the mechanism of the corrosion behavior of aluminum-implanted zirconium was discussed.