Journal of Advanced Materials in Engineering (Esteghlal)

Sodium molybdate (Na₂MoO₄) as a grain refiner was used to refine the microstructure of Al-0.7Fe alloy. Al-Fe samples with the addition of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 wt.% sodium molybdate were fabricated by casting in sand molds at 750 ͦC. The microstructures of the as-cast samples were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the present phases were revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effect of sodium molybdate on the microstructure was examined by measuring the average grain sizes of the alloys, determining the widths of intermetallic compounds and carrying out hardness and tensile tests. The results showed that the addition of sodium molybdate modified the microstructure of Al-Fe alloy by reducing the average grain sizes. Also, it was found that the optimum amount of sodium molybdate to add to Al-0.7Fe alloy melt was 0.3 wt.% in this study.

In this investigation, the effect of grain size on the corrosion behavior of 304L stainless steel has been studied. Samples with grain sizes of 0.5, 3 and 12 micrometers were fabricated through formation of strain-induced martensite by 80% cold rolling of the stainless steel sheets at -15 ^°C and its reversion to austenite during annealing at 900 ^°C for 1, 5 and 180 min. The corrosion behavior of samples with different grain sizes was investigated by cyclic polarization experiments and  immersion tests in 0.1 M hydrochloric acid (HCl). The polarisation tests showed no differences in uniform corrosion rates of the samples. The results of the cyclic polarisation and immersion tests showed that decreasing the grain size improved the pitting corrosion resistance from 290 mV_Ag/Agcl for grain size of 12 micrometers to 420 mV_Ag/Agcl for grain size of 0.5 micrometers.