, R. Sandoval-Jabalera

An investigation about the corrosion resistance of Ni-Al-Cu intermetallic alloys in simulated human body fluid environments has been carried out by using electrochemical techniques. Tested alloys included 50 (wt %) Ni-(20 and 25) Al-(20 and 25) Cu using the Hank´s solution. For comparison, 316L type stainless steel has also been evaluated. Electrochemical techniques included potentiodynamic polarization curves, linear polarization resistance (LPR), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and electrochemical noise measurements, EN. Different techniques have shown that, generally speaking, Ni-Al-Cu alloys showed a lower corrosion resistance than conventional 316L type stainless steel only during a few days. Their corrosion resistance decreased as the Cu content in the alloy decreased. The alloys were susceptible to pitting type of corrosion on the ’-(Ni, Cu)3Al Cu-rich phases