The corrosion behaviour of WC-VC-Co hardmetals in acidic media

D. S. Konadu, J. van der Merwe, J. H. Potgieter, S. Potgieter-Vermaak, C. N. Machio

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

72 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The effect of increasing vanadium carbide (VC) content on the corrosion behaviour of tungsten carbide - 10 wt% cobalt hardmetals was investigated in 1 M hydrochloric (HCl), and sulphuric (H2SO4) acids solutions. Increasing VC content makes the open circuit potential (OCP) in the test solutions more negative than the base alloy. Specimens exhibited pseudo passivation in all the test solutions. Increasing VC led to decreasing corrosion current density. However, the corrosion current densities during chronoamperometric tests were lower for 0 wt% VC. XRD and Raman spectroscopy showed that hydrated WO3 formed in the surface films of all specimens in hydrochloric acid (HCl), while hydrated vanadyl sulphate also formed for higher VC content specimens in sulphuric acid (H2SO4).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3118-3125
Number of pages8
JournalCorrosion Science
Volume52
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sep 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • A. WC-Co
  • A. WC-VC-Co
  • B. Polarization
  • B. Raman spectroscopy
  • B. XRD
  • C. Passivity

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