• Tylczak, Joseph H.
• Rodriguez, Alvaro
• Ziomek-Moroz, Margaret E.

Abstract

High-entropy alloys (HEAs), are multicomponent alloys composed of at least five elements with compositions of 5-35 atomic % for each element. These alloys are being investigated for corrosion protection of natural gas transmission pipelines by studying their behavior under aqueous acidic conditions. Electrochemical and immersion experiments were carried out in 3.5 weight % NaCl solution at pH 4 and 40°C. Oxygen was purged out from the solution by using CO2 as stripping gas. The electrochemical experiments included potentiodynamic and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests, used to calculate corrosion rates. Potentiodynamic polarization curves, including cyclic voltammograms, were used to explain active, active-passive, and passive regions of these alloys and susceptibility to localized corrosion. Surface characterization of the corroded samples were performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The results of the immersion and electrochemical testing indicate that some of the HEAs have better corrosion performance than commercial alloys UNS N10276, UNS K03014, and UNS 31600.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• surface
• corrosion
• scanning electron microscopy
• x-ray diffraction
• experiment
• Oxygen
• susceptibility