Aluminium and aluminium alloys are due to their good mechanical and chemical properties most commonly used technological material. The AA2024 aluminium alloy is used widely in aircraft structures and design. Its microstructure is very complex and composed of numerous intermetallic particles. The alloy is susceptible to pitting and intergranular corrosion. This study addresses the corrosion protection of AA2024 alloy with vanadate and molybdate as corrosion inhibitors. These compounds were added to the corrosion medium, 0.1 M NaCl solution, at various concentrations from 0.5 mM to 250 mM. Sodium vanadate significantly reduced the corrosion current density at almost all concentrations, while sodium molybdate at higher concentrations significantly increased the difference between the corrosion potential and breakdown potential. No synergistic effect was observed for these two inhibitors. The influence of immersion time and the influence of the pH value on the corrosion behaviour were also examined. With both inhibitors, the corrosion parameters were improved with increasing immersion time under the conditions of open circuit. Sodium vanadate inhibits corrosion best in neutral and mild basic medium and sodium molybdate in mild basic medium. The formation of molibdenum and vanadium compounds was confirmed on the surface of aluminium alloy by surface analysis techniques.
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