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The corrosion performance of as-solidified Al-Pd alloys in HCl and NaOH aqueous solutions is investigated in this work. Four different alloys (Al88Pd12, Al77Pd23, Al72Pd28 and Al67Pd33, element concentrations are given in at.%) were prepared from high purity Al and Pd lumps by arc-melting in Ar. Subsequently, the alloy microstructure and phase occurrence were investigated by a combination of scanning electron microscopy and room-temperature powder X-ray diffraction. The assolidified Al-Pd alloys were found to consist of several single-phase microstructure constituents with various structures and chemical compositions, including structurally complex intermetallic phases. The polished surfaces of the Al-Pd alloys were subjected to electrochemical polarization in aqueous HCl and NaOH solutions (0.01 mol.dm-3) at 21±2°C. The corrosion experiments were conducted in a standard 3-electrode cell controlled by potentiostat. The corrosion potentials and corrosion current densities were determined by Tafel extrapolation of the experimental polarization curves. Phase dissolution has been observed on the alloy surfaces and some of the phases were preferentially corroded. The effects of the alloy microstructure and the phase occurrence are evaluated. The local nobility of individual intermetallic compounds is discussed. Finally, the conclusions for the alloys corrosion performance in acidic and basic solutions are provided.

The precipitation of secondary phases was investigated in the 0.17C-16Cr-11Mn-0.43N austenitic stainless steel during annealing at 800 and 850°C for times between 5 min and 100 h. Light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and differential thermal analysis were used in experiments. Thermodynamic calculations were done by the ThermoCalc database software package. Cr2N and M23C6 were considered to be stable phases at the annealing temperatures. Cells consisting of alternating Cr2N and austenite lamellae were observed in the steel microstructure after sufficiently long annealing. The metastable chi phase was also found in all the annealed samples. After 100 h of annealing the equilibrium sigma started to precipitate. The thermodynamically predicted M6C was not confirmed experimentally in any of the annealed samples. DTA analysis showed the initial precipitation stage was followed by the phase dissolution. For the investigated steel the computational thermodynamics can be used only for qualitative interpretation of the experimental results as the measured endothermal peaks were found to be shifted of about 50 ÷ 70°C related to the computed results.