The aqueous corrosion behavior of silver ion implanted Zircaloy-4

1 × 1016/cm2, 5 × 1016/cm2 and 1 × 1017/cm2 silver ions were implanted into Zircaloy-4 to investigate the aqueous corrosion behavior of samples. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and potentiodynamic polarization measurements were employed individually to analyze the valence and composition of the surface layer and the value of the aqueous corrosion resistance of samples with or without implantation in 0.5 mol/L H2SO4 solution (pH = 0). It was found that the implantation damage and the formation of the oxide barrier on the surface layer played two important roles in the aqueous corrosion resistance of samples. The less the implantation damages are and the more the formation of the oxide barrier is, the better the aqueous corrosion resistance of the samples will be. In the present paper, ion implantation improved the aqueous corrosion resistance of Zircaloy-4 significantly, and the lower the implantation dose is, the better the performance will be.