Effects of Yttrium (Y) Substitution by Cerium (Ce) on Microstructure and Corrosion Behavior of Near-Equiatomic Alniy Medium-Entropy Amorphous Alloy Ribbons

Abstract

Through partially replacing Y element, Ce was added into near-equiatomic AlNiY medium-entropy amorphous alloy (denoted as MEAA) ribbons by the melt spinning process in this study. The differences of microstructure, thermal stability, hardness and corrosion resistance of Al33.3Ni33.3Y33.4-xCex (x = 0, 2, 5, 8, 13) alloy ribbons were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and Vickers-type hardness tester. The anti-corrosion performance in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution of alloy ribbons was investigated elaborately through the general potentiodynamic polarization curves (Tafel) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Results suggested that all ribbon samples could remain amorphous structure and the hardness are all above 510 HV0.1. With the increase of Ce content, the thermal stability begins to be gradually lower. However, according to the analysis of crystallization kinetics, all types of MEAA ribbons presents the relatively prominent thermal stability compared with traditional Al-based amorphous alloys. The corrosion current density raises firstly, then shows a decreasing trend, and has a slight increase at last. Therefore, appropriate content of Ce element can improve the corrosion protection performance of alloy ribbons and the 5 at.% Ce MEAA ribbons exhibited the excellent corrosion resistance in this study.