Kinetic stability of aluminium

Abstract

The stability of a material (electrochemically) is typically described in terms of equilibrium thermodynamics; i.e. by Pourbaix diagrams. However, in engineering applications, a likelihood of corrosion as predicted by thermodynamics is not as useful as knowing how 'fast' a material reacts in a certain environment, although being highly reactive thermodynamically, reactive metals such as aluminium, commonly display high 'kinetic stability' that allow them to be engineering materials in contact with corrosive environments. In this work towards presenting a kinetic stability diagram for pure aluminium, and discuss the utility of this in terms of alloy design. Show more