Microstructure and corrosion properties of the low-density single-phase compositionally complex alloy AlTiVCr

Abstract Compositionally complex alloys (CCAs) possess unique microstructures and passive films, which need to be studied to contribute to fundamental understanding of corrosion in such alloys. Herein, we report the corrosion characteristics of a single phase CCA, AlTiVCr, designed to have a low-density (5.06 g cm −3 ) relative to other CCAs. AlTiVCr was found to exhibit excellent corrosion resistance in 0.6 M NaCl (with E pit  > 1.27 V SCE ). A passive layer comprising of mixed metallic oxides interspersed with un-oxidised metal species was detected upon this CCA using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which was hypothesised to contribute to excellent corrosion resistance.