Effect of self-ion bombardment on the corrosion behavior of zirconium

Abstract In order to study the influences of self-ion bombardment on the aqueous corrosion behavior of zirconium, specimens were implanted by zirconium ions with a fluence range from 1 × 10 15 to 2 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 at about 170 °C, using MEVVA source at an extracted voltage of 50 kV. The valence of the surface layer was analyzed by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS); the thickness of the oxide film was measured by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). Three-sweep potentiodynamic polarization measurement was employed to value the aqueous corrosion resistance of zirconium in a 1N H 2 SO 4 solution. Glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GAXRD) was employed to examine the phase transformation due to the self-ion implantation in the oxide films. It was found that the aqueous corrosion behavior of zirconium implanted with 5 × 10 16 Zr ions/cm 2 is the best in all the samples. The natural corrosion potentials of all the bombarded samples are more negative than that of the as-received zirconium. The tendency is probably that the natural corrosion potential declines with raising the bombarded fluences. Finally, the mechanism of the corrosion behavior of the self-ion implanted zirconium is discussed.