Hot corrosion of layered machinable ceramic Ti 3 AlC 2 coated with 3.8 Ϯ 0.2 mg/cm 2 Na 2 SO 4 in air at 700-1000°C has been investigated by means of thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy/ energy-dispersive spectroscopy. The hot corrosion of Ti 3 AlC 2 was slight at low temperatures of 700 and 800°C, while Ti 3 AlC 2 was severely attacked by fused sodium sulfate at 900 and 1000°C. No protective scales were observed on Ti 3 AlC 2 , and sulfur-rich layers were present at the Ti 3 AlC 2 substrate/scale interface. The linear hot corrosion kinetics at 800 and 900°C demonstrated that electrochemical reactions of Ti 3 AlC 2 with sodium sulfate at the substrate/scale interface dominated, while the parabolic kinetics at 1000°C implied that the rate-limiting step involved in the hot corrosion was the diffusion of hot corrosion medium through the scale formed. The hot corrosion behaviors were explained by a mechanism of electrochemistry coupled with basic dissolution-precipitation. Two-layered machinable ternary carbides, Ti 3 AlC 2 and Ti 2 AlC, in the Ti-Al-C system, are of interest as potential high-temperature structural materials due to their high specific strength and excellent high-temperature properties.1,2 Ti 3 AlC 2 and Ti 2 AlC exhibit good oxidation resistance due to the formation of a protective ␣-Al 2 O 3 layer at high temperatures in spite of the low aluminum content. 3,4 Moreover, in contrast to traditional carbide ceramics, they can be readily machined by both conventional tools originating from the relatively weak bonding between sheets of Ti 6 C octahedra and neighboring close-packed Al atoms, 5 and by electrodischarge machining because of its high electrical conductivity.
1,2As a potential high-temperature structural material, Ti 3 AlC 2 will always be exposed to the service circumstance in which hot corrosion occurs. Hot corrosion became a topic of popular interest in the late 1960s as gas turbine engines of military aircraft suffered severe corrosion during the Vietnam conflict when operating over seawater. 6 Metallographic inspection of failed parts often showed sulfides of nickel and chromium, so the mechanism was initially called sulfidation. However, studies by Goebel and Pettit 7 and by Bornstein and DeCrescente 8,9 showed that sulfide formation indeed resulted from the reaction of the metallic substrate with a thin film of fused salt of sodium sulfate base rather than with Na 2 SO 4 vapor. Because corrosion by a thin electrolyte film bears some common features with ''atomospheric corrosion'' by an aqueous film at room temperature, the phenomenon has been renamed ''hot corrosion''. While aqueous atomospheric corrosion is often controlled by the diffusion of dissolved oxygen in the water film, numerous measurements have shown that the soluble oxidant in hot corrosion is SO 3 (S 2 O 7 2Ϫ ) in the fused salt. [10][11][12][13] It is well acknowledged that the subject of hot corrosion can be divided into two subtypes, i.e., hightemperature ...