The impact of elevated lithium concentration 3.5Â ppm on the corrosion rate of zirconium

Corrosion of zirconium in presence of LiOH was studied by cyclic potentiodynamic polarization technique. SEM was used to observe the visual appearance of oxide film after the procedure. The measurements were carried out at room temperature and open to air. Our investigations show the accelerated electrochemical corrosion is caused by 3.5 ppm rather than 2.2 ppm. The important observation is the steep decrease in corrosion rate at 2.2 ppm Li ion.