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Wan et al. Microstructures 2023;3:2023014 Microstructures
DOI: 10.20517/microstructures.2022.36

Research Article Open Access

The effect of chromium content on the corrosion

behavior of ultrafine-grained Cr MnFeCoNi high-
x
entropy alloys in sulfuric acid solution

Tian Wan, Zhikun Huang, Zhuo Cheng, Mingyu Zhu, Weiwei Zhu, Zongyuan Li, Danni Fu, Fuzeng Ren
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055,
Guangdong, China.
Correspondence to: Prof. Fuzeng Ren, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and
Technology, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China. E-mail: renfz@sustech.edu.cn
How to cite this article: Wan T, Huang Z, Cheng Z, Zhu M, Zhu W, Li Z, Fu D, Ren F. The effect of chromium content on the
corrosion behavior of ultrafine-grained Cr xMnFeCoNi high-entropy alloys in sulfuric acid solution. Microstructures
2023;3:2023014. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/microstructures.2022.36

Received: 30 Oct 2022 First Decision: 1 Dec 2022 Revised: 6 Jan 2023 Accepted: 30 Jan 2023 Published: 22 Feb 2023

Academic Editors: Jun Chen, Shiqing Deng Copy Editor: Fangling Lan Production Editor: Fangling Lan

Abstract
Chromium (Cr) plays a critical role in the corrosion resistance of conventional alloys via the formation of a dense
Cr oxide-based passive film. However, the exact role of Cr in the corrosion of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) remains
unclear. The effect of Cr content on the corrosion behavior of the ultrafine-grained Cr x MnFeCoNi (x = 0, 0.6, 1, and
1.5) HEAs in the sulfuric acid solution (0.5 M H SO ) was investigated. These HEAs were fabricated using a
2
4
combination of mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering. The electrochemical tests show that the passive
film was more compact and thicker at higher Cr concentration, but the corrosion rate first increased and then
decreased, due to the presence of the nanocrystalline-amorphous phase boundaries in the passive film. Long-time
immersion tests show that the corrosion rate increased exponentially with the Cr content, due to the gradual
accumulation of the galvanic corrosion.

Keywords: High-entropy alloy, polarization, galvanic corrosion, passive film

INTRODUCTION
High-entropy alloys (HEAs) have been reported with excellent mechanical properties at cryogenic
temperatures and high resistance to wear , irradiation and corrosion , and are thus considered to be
[4]
[6,7]
[1-3]
[5]

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