Corrosion behavior of zirconium diboride coated stainless steel in molten 6061 aluminum alloy

A zirconium diboride coating on 201 stainless steel prepared by electrodeposition in NaCl-KCl-K2ZrF6-KBF4 molten salts and the stability and corrosion mechanism of the stainless steel with and without ZrB2 coating in molten aluminum alloy at 800 °C are investigated by immersion tests. The results show that the stainless steels suffer severe corrosion by aluminum after only 2 h immersion, while the ZrB2-coated stainless steels show high corrosion resistance to aluminum attacks after 120 h immersion. It can be inferred that surface modification of stainless steel by electrodepositing ZrB2 coating in molten salts is an effective way to protect substrate materials from degeneration in molten aluminum.