Influence of the Al Content on the Electrochemical Behavior of Zn-Al Cold-Sprayed Coatings in the Context of the Deep Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste

Abstract

For high-level radioactive waste, the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency is currently developing a 500 m deep geological disposal facility called Cigéo. Carbon steel containers will be used to contain the wastes in the specific conditions of the disposal. The use of a sacrificial coating was studied as an additional protection for the containers against corrosion. A previous work had shown the possibility to use Zn-Al coatings in this specific medium. To optimize the coatings’ performance, the cold-spraying process was considered instead of the previously used wire arc spraying because it can increase the cohesion between the particles in the coating. Moreover, three aluminum contents, i.e., 5, 15 and 25 wt.%, were considered. The characterization of the obtained coatings revealed a strongly heterogeneous composition for the lower Al content (5 wt.%), with local Al contents from 1.3 wt.% Al to 44.5 wt.% Al. The corrosion study was carried out in a specific solution mimicking the pore solution of the surrounding cementitious material designed for disposal at a temperature of 50 °C. First, the polarization curves acquired with coated steel electrodes revealed the pseudo-passive behavior of the 25 wt.% Al coating, while for the other compositions, the coating remained active. Moreover, the higher aluminum content (25 wt.%) induced an important decrease in potential, with a possible risk of hydrogen embrittlement for the protected steel. Secondly, the sacrificial properties were investigated through 6 months of experiments using coated electrodes with cross-like defects and coated electrodes coupled with bare steel electrodes. Whatever the composition of the coating, the protection was maintained, with the 15 wt.% Al coating giving the best performance.