Influence of cerium on passivity behavior of wrought AZ91 alloy

In this paper, more focus had been put on the passivity behavior of wrought AZ91 alloy with 1.5 mass% Ce. The passive current density of wrought AZ91 alloy increased with addition of Ce and the passive film became unstable. Structures and compositions of the passive films formed on wrought AZ91 alloy without and with Ce in 0.01 M NaOH aqueous solution were analyzed by potentiostatic polarization, potentiostatic–galvanostatic (P–G) transient technique and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that Ce only accumulated in the inner layer of passive film in the form of CeO2. Further analysis revealed that there were two main effects of Ce on the passive process of wrought AZ91 alloy: first, the existence of CeO2 in inner layer of passive film made mass transport through the passive film follow tangent hyperbolic (T) impedance instead of Warburg impedance (W); second, donor concentration (Nd) of the passive film increased by a factor 10 when 1.5 mass% Ce existed in wrought AZ91 alloy, which led to the higher passivity current density.