Study on Influence of Tetragonal ZrO2 in Oxide Film on Corrosion Resistance of Zr-Sn-Nb Alloy

Zr-Sn-Nb alloy specimens treated in different ways were exposed to 0.01 mol/L LiOH aqueous solution at 350 °C, 16.8 MPa in autoclave. Spectroscopy Ellipsometry (S-E) was applied to investigate the effect of tetragonal ZrO2 (t-ZrO2) in oxide film on corrosion resistance of Zr-Sn-Nb alloy. It was found that the 580 °C/C. R/500 °C specimen corroded for 42 d and 190 d have more t-ZrO2 than other two specimens. But it is converse to the corrosion rate. It is suggested that the small amount of t-ZrO2 is a main factor to affect the corrosion resistance ability and the corrosion resistance is improved by the formation of t-ZrO2.