Impacts of Heat Treatment on the Electrochemical Properties of AA3003 expose to 0.1M Hydrochloric Acid Media

The impact of heat treatment on the electrochemical corrosion behaviour of control, oven quenched and air quenched samples of Aluminium alloy AA3003 was investigated by observing the changes that occurred in the open circuit potential, potentiodynamic polarization curve, and electrochemical impedance spectra within 0.1M HCl acid environment. The open circuit potential of the oven quenched sample shifted to more negative values, indicating shift into the active states. The cathodic branch of the polarization potential of the air quenched sample shifted into lower current density, indicating resistance to cathodic corrosion. The impedance analysis shows that the heat treatment of the sample facilitated dissolution of the samples in the medium. The calculated double layer capacitance buttresses the fact that the heat treatment caused the samples to be more susceptible to corrosion within the acid medium since the value is higher for heat treated samples. Finally, from the XRD data, heat treatment caused a decreased in peak intensity, size of crystalline particles, and a shift into higher diffracting angles for the particles and elimination of Mn from the crystalline particles that occurred at maximum peak.