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Effect of Lithium on the Discharge and Corrosion Behavior of Mg-3 wt.% Al Alloy as the Anode for Seawater Activated Battery

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Abstract

The discharge and corrosion behavior of Mg-3 wt.% Al alloys added with different contents of lithium in 3.5 wt.% NaCl aqueous solution is studied by electrochemical methods and microstructure characterization. The results indicate that adding 4 wt.% lithium severely promotes the self-corrosion and the addition of 12 wt.% lithium is not valuable to the spalling of discharge products. In contrast, doping Mg-3 wt.% Al with 8 wt.% lithium negatively shifts the discharge potentials and inhibits the self-discharge, attributed to the dual-phase structure of α-Mg plus β-Li that removes the discharge products and favors the uniform dissolution in the course of discharge. Moreover, the multi-pass rolling with 40% reduction could tailor the microstructure of Mg-3 wt.% Al-8 wt.% Li alloy and further enhance its discharge activity, even though the corrosion resistance is slightly reduced. This means that the rolled Mg-3 wt.% Al-8 wt.% Li sheet is suitable to serve as the anode for seawater activated battery.

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Acknowledgments

Authors acknowledge the financial support of the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 51401243), a Special Financial Grant from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2015T80883), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2014M552151).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Ri-chu Wang, Qi Li, Chao-qun Peng & Yan Feng

  2. School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Nai-guang Wang

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Correspondence to Nai-guang Wang.

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Wang, Rc., Li, Q., Wang, Ng. et al. Effect of Lithium on the Discharge and Corrosion Behavior of Mg-3 wt.% Al Alloy as the Anode for Seawater Activated Battery. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 27, 6552–6563 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3750-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3750-7

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