Effect of Molybdate Ions on the Corrosion Behaviour of Ti Alloys

Titanium alloys are extensively used in power, chemical and petroleum industries as constructional materials for vessels and heat transfer tubes. Moreover they are candidate materials for nuclear waste disposal. These alloys have superior resistance to localized forms of corrosion compared to stainless steels and Ni-base alloys. However, this resistance is not as remarkable in crevice corrosion conditions in some aggressive media. Electrochemical corrosion tests were conducted on two ASTM Ti grades namely, Ti-2 and Ti-12 in extremely low pH acidic environment. Results indicated that Ti-2 has less resistance to both general and crevice corrosion attack than Ti-12. Both alloys possess better resistance to general corrosion than to crevice corrosion. Also, results showed that the molybdate addition improves remarkably the resistance of Ti-2 to both types of attack. The increase of molybdate ions concentration from 0.03 mol/L to 0.15 mol/L made Ti-2 to be as resistant as, or somewhat higher than, Ti-12. The elecrochemical findings were further supplemented by optical examination of the corroded surface.