Corrosion performance of Ni-16%wt.Mo-X%wt.SiC alloys in FLiNaK molten salt

The corrosion performance of Ni-16%wt.Mo-X%wt.SiC (X = 0.5, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0) alloys prepared via mechanical alloying followed by consolidation using spark plasma sintering (SPS) from pure Ni, Mo and SiC powders is investigated. Corrosion testing at 650 °C/200 h in FLiNaK molten salt showed that increasing the volume fraction of SiC in the initial Ni-Mo-SiC powder mixture leads to formation of large amount of Mo2C precipitates, which readily dissolve into FLiNaK molten salt. Hence, only the corrosion resistance of NiMo-SiC alloys with a low SiC content (<2 wt.%) is comparable to that of Hastelloy-N® alloy.