Corrosion behavior of Ti3AlC2 in NaOH and H2SO4

Passivation behavior, corrosion kinetics and film formation mechanism of Ti3AlC2 in 1 M NaOH and 1 M H2SO4 solutions were investigated by linear potential scan, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, SEM and XPS. The corrosion resistance mainly depended on the formation of passivating films on Ti3AlC2 in 1 M NaOH and 1 M H2SO4, which led to different corrosion processes. Ti3AlC2 displayed good corrosion resistance in NaOH due to the formation of dense and protective Ti oxides as the passivating film. However, it exhibited poor corrosion resistance in H2SO4 which attributed to the formation of permeable Ti sub-oxides as the pseudo-passivating film.