Microstructural and Corrosion Characteristics of Al-Fe Alloys Produced by High-Frequency Induction-Sintering Process

Al-x wt.% Fe bulk alloys were fabricated from a powder mixture of pure Al and x wt.% of Fe, where x = 2 wt.%, 5 wt.% and 10 wt.%. Initially, as-mixed mixtures were processed using a mechanical-alloying (MA) technique in an attritor for 4 h. The milling was performed in an argon atmosphere at room temperature followed by the sintering of the milled powders in a high-frequency induction furnace to produce bulk samples. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the morphology of the produced alloys, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to determine the phases formed after the sintering process and their crystallite size. The corrosion behavior of the fabricated samples was studied by immerging them in a 3.5% sodium chloride (NaCl) solution at room temperature using cyclic-polarization (CP) and electrochemical-impedance-spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The SEM results showed that Fe was uniformly distributed in the Al matrix, and XRD revealed the formation of Al and intermetallic, i.e., Al6Fe and Al13Fe4, phases in the Al-Fe alloys after sintering. The hardness of the Al-Fe alloys was increased with the addition of Fe due to the formation of intermetallic compounds. Electrochemical results showed that there was a proportional relationship between the percentage of Fe additives and corrosion potential (Ecorr) where it shifted toward a nobler direction, while corrosion current density (icorr) and corrosion rate decreased with an increasing Fe%. This observation indicates that the addition of Fe into an Al matrix leads to an improvement in the corrosion resistance of the alloys.