Galvanic Corrosion of AZ31 Mg Alloy Contacting with Copper

This work studied the corrosion behavior of AZ31 Mg alloy galvanically coupled with Cu during immersion in 0.1 and 0.5 M NaCl solutions by in-situ observation and galvanic corrosion current measurement using a zero resistance ammeter. The corrosion behavior of AZ31 Mg alloy was also studied by salt spray test. The average galvanic corrosion density during 2 h immersion in 0.1 NaCl solution was found to decrease as an exponential function with increasing the surface area ratios between AZ31:Cu or with increasing the distance between AZ31 and Cu. The corrosion of electrodeposited Cu on AZ31 Mg alloy was concentrated at the area next to Cu (about 5 mm for immersion test and 2 mm for salt spray test) and pitting corrosion was accelerated at the area beyond the severely corroded area by the galvanic coupling effect.