Discrete electrochemical transients of aluminium alloys generated by slurry jet impingement

Slurry impingement is a type of tribocorrosion resulting from simultaneous mechanical and electrochemical surface degradation. In order to understand the elementary process of slurry impingement and the effect of mechanical damage on passive films, electrochemical responses associated with passive film breakdown by particle impacts and following repassivation were measured during slurry impingement on Al and Al-1 wt% Si alloy microelectrodes. Measurements were made using a slurry jet system which consists of a pump, a microelectrode, a potentiostat suited for measurements of fast transients of small currents and a high frequency data acquisition system. Current transients corresponding to separated single particle impacts have been successfully measured. The current transient sharply rises and gradually decays following a high field model of oxide growth. It is shown that pure Al repassivates faster after particle impact than the Al-1 wt% Si alloy. This type of erodent particle had an influence on the apparent repassivation rate of these electrodes, and both Al and Al-1 wt% Si alloy showed slower current decay after the impact of angular SiC particle than after the impact of spheroidal zirconia particle. The SiC particles made deep scars and scratches, and the zirconia particles made shallow depressions.