Electrochemical properties of the passive film on bulk Zr-Fe-Cr intermetallic fabricated by spark plasma sintering

Although Zr-based second phase particles (SPPs) are important factors influencing corrosion resistance of zircaloy cladding materials, the corrosion behavior of SPPs has not been investigated by means of electrochemical method so far. In order to clarify the role of SPPs commonly existed in zircaloy, bulk Zr-based intermetallics were firstly fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at temperatures 1373 K and an applied pressure of 60 MPa in this work. Both the natural passive film on surface and oxidation behavior of intermetallic has been investigated in this work. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern showed that as-prepared intermetallic of crystal structure belongs to Laves phase with AB2 type. Electrochemical measurement of passive film on surface of bulk Zr-based intermetallic exhibited significant difference with that of zirconium. Potentiodynamic measurements results revealed that intermetallic exhibited higher corrosion potential and lower corrosion current density than that of pure zirconium, implying that Zr-based second phase will act as cathode when they are included in zirconium matrix. Meanwhile, significant improvement of Zr-Fe-Cr intermetallic on the water chemistry corrosion resistance was demonstrated comparing with Zr-Fe and Zr-Cr binary intermetallics.