Significance of Zn Complex Concentration on Microstructure Evolution and Corrosion Behavior of Al/WS₂

Corrosion is a harmful processes which by definition is a chemical or electrochemical reaction between a substance (usually a metal) and the environment which leads to a change in the properties of the substance and has destructive effects. In this study, new composites consisting of Al/WS₂/ZnTerp-2TH with 5 and 10 wt.% ZnTerp-2TH were prepared and the results were fully compared. Al/WS₂ played the role of matrix and ZnTerp-2TH played the role of reinforcement. In other words, as a novelty to prevent the corrosion of Al/WS₂, ZnTerp-2TH is designed and synthesized and showed good results when the corrosion ratio was reduced by the existence of ZnTerp-2TH. Furthermore, the NMR and mass analysis of ZnTerp-2TH were carried out, and the thermal properties, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, morphology, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis and corrosion behavior of the composites were also discussed in detail. The crystal size values of composites were calculated by the modified Scherrer method 34, 26 and 27 nm for Al/WS₂, Al/WS₂/5 wt.% ZnTerp-2TH and Al/WS₂/10 wt.% ZnTerp-2TH, respectively. The microstructural examination of the specimens showed that the reinforcing phase (ZnTerp-2TH) has a favorable distribution on the surface of Al/WS₂ when it covers the cracks and holes. In addition, the corrosion investigation results showed that the addition of ZnTerp-2TH to Al/WS₂ can improve the corrosion resistance when the E_corr and I_corr values of Al/WS₂/10 wt.% ZnTerp-2TH were recorded in tandem -724 mV/decade and 5 uA cm^-2.