Abstract: Al-alloy (AA5022) corrosion penetration (CP) and crystal structure were investigated after running static immersion corrosion tests in 1 mol/L HCl solution and different concentrations of rare earth elements (La3+), (Ce3+) and their combination, at different temperatures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to examine the surface structure before and after immersion, and secondary electron detector (SED) was operated to study surface morphology. In 1 mol/L HCl solution the corrosion penetration increased with increasing temperature and immersion time. The increase of La3+ concentrations up to 1000×10-6 g/L led to the decrease in the corrosion penetration, and the decrease in Ce3+ concentrations up to 50×10-6 g/L decreases the corrosion penetration of the alloy. Mix3 (combination of La3+ and Ce3+) dramatically reduced the corrosion penetration. This suggests that a synergistic effect exists between La3+ and Ce3+. The reaction kinetics both in absence and presence of La3+ and Ce3+ and their combination would follow a parabolic rate law. The XRD patterns revealed that the intensities of certain hkl phases are affected. The crystalline structure has not been deformed either before or after testing and there are no additional peaks except that of the as-received alloy. In the case of accelerating CP, the surface morphology shows that the roughness and voids of surface are increased.

Key words: Al-alloy, Corrosion penetration, Crystal structure, XRD