Examination of Galvanic Action between Fe-Based Bulk Metallic Glass and Crystalline Alloys

Fe-based bulk metallic glasses (amorphous metals) have been developed, and several compositions are shown to have excellent corrosion resistance in chloride solutions. Further, thermal-spray amorphous metals are being developed for use as a barrier coating layer, to protect substrate materials from corrosion. Galvanic action between dissimilar metals and the coating/substrate for the amorphous-alloy coatings is of practical interest for a number of applications. The mixed-potential theory provides a useful approach for examining the corrosion behavior of the component materials in the galvanic couple and is applied in this study. Galvanic action was studied for an Fe-based structurally amorphous metal (SAM) 1651 and several crystalline alloys that included 1018 C-steel, stainless steel (SS) 316L, and alloy 22. Anodic and cathodic polarization curves of each of the metals were measured by potentiodynamic polarization. Based on the mixed-potential theory, the behavior of the component materials in a galvanic cell was predicted. The predictions are compared to the measured behavior of galvanic couples with the crystalline alloys. This article is based on a presentation given in the symposium entitled “Iron-Based Amorphous Metals: An Important Family of High-Performance Corrosion-Resistant Materials,” which occurred during the MSandT meeting, September 16–20, 2007, in Detroit, Michigan, under the auspices of The American Ceramics Society (ACerS), The Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST), ASM International, and TMS.