Qian Meng

Molten carbonate salts are a promising candidate for next-generation concentrated solar power technology owing to their excellent heat storage and heat transfer properties. This represents overcoming several problems that structural materials exhibit, including severe corrosion and high-temperature creep. Alloys with an aluminum element are alternatives in this regard as they are highly resistant to corrosive environments. In this paper, the corrosion behavior in molten carbonates (Li₂CO₃-Na₂CO₃-K₂CO₃) and creep properties of TP347H with different aluminum contents at 650 °C were studied. The results demonstrated that the alloy corrosion rate was reduced via Al addition. The alloy with 2.5 wt.% Al exhibited the lowest corrosion rate: ~25% lower than that without Al after 1000 h of corrosion. With increasing Al content, the inner corrosion layer of the alloys transformed from a Cr-containing oxide layer to a Cr–Al-containing composite oxide layer. The addition of Al promoted the formation of a layer of continuous and dense LiFeO₂ product on the alloy surface during early corrosion stages, which prevented the carbonate from coming into direct contact with the substrate. After 1000 h of corrosion, the surface of the alloy is mainly composed of LiFeO₂ and LiCrO₂. Compared to TP347H, the added Al element enhanced the strength and elongation of TP347H at 650 °C. The TP347H containing 2 wt.% Al exhibited the best high-temperature tensile properties. When the stress was 110 MPa, the lowest steady-state creep rate of the alloy containing 2 wt.% Al was 3.61 × 10⁻⁶, and the true stress index was 5.791. This indicates that the creep mechanism was a dislocation climb assisted by lattice diffusion.

The microstructure, mechanical properties, oxidation, and corrosion resistance of 2205 stainless steels without and with Al in a range of 0.5 to 2.5 wt.% were investigated in this paper. The results showed that the matrix phase transformed from austenite to ferrite. The volume fraction of the ferrite in the steels decreased at first and then increased and was the lowest in the steel with 0.5 wt.% Al. Most of the Al was dissolved in the ferrite and austenite phases in the steels. The ultimate tensile strength and elongation rate of the steels increased at first and then decreased with the increasing Al content, with the highest values in the steel with 0.5 wt.% Al. The yield strength of the steels slightly increased from 544 to 607 MPa due to the addition of Al. The oxidation rates of the steels with Al were much lower than that of the steel without Al, and the rate of the steel with 1.5 wt.% Al was the lowest, approximately 10 times lower than that of the steel without Al. The corrosion rates of the steels with 0.5 and 1.0 wt.% Al were slightly higher than that of the alloy without Al. In general, the steel with 1 wt.% Al had optimal properties.