DOI: https://doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.20728

Cation-dependent Behavior of Aluminium under Pulsed Electrolysis

Department of Technology, Platov South-Russian State Polytechnic University (NPI), Novocherkassk 346428, Russian Federation

Received: 8 May 2026; Revised: 19 Jun 2026; Accepted: 19 Jun 2026; Available online: 23 Jun 2026; Published: 30 Oct 2026.
Editor(s): Istadi Istadi
Open Access Copyright (c) 2026 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Abstract

For decades, chloride ions Cl⁻have been considered a key factor in the electrochemical behavior of aluminum in chloride electrolytes, including depassivation, pitting corrosion, and anodic dissolution. However, the influence of electrolyte cations has been considered secondary or ignored in most classical studies. In this study, we investigated the influence of electrolyte cations (MgCl2, CaCl2, SrCl2, BaCl2) on the electrochemical behavior of aluminum under the influence of an alternating symmetrical pulsed current with a density of 1 A.cm-2. The study found that in the presence of Ba2+ and Sr2+, aluminum is oxidized to form dispersed two-phase products AlOOH and Al(OH)3, with an average particle size of 1.9 and 2.2 nm for the AlOOH phase and 20.4 and 13.9 nm for the Al(OH)3 phase. In Mg2+ and Ca2+ chlorides, passivating films of Mg(OH)2 or Ca(OH)2 are formed, as well as layered double hydroxides – Mg6Al2(OH)16Cl2∙4H2O (Mg-Al LDH) or Ca2Al(OH)6Cl∙2H2O (Ca-Al LDH), respectively, which inhibit aluminum corrosion under pulse electrolysis conditions, even in the presence of activating Cl- ions. Copyright © 2026 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Keywords: Aluminium; alkaline earth metal cations; alternating pulsed current; corrosion; passivation
Funding: Russian Science Foundation under contract no. 25-19-00280

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Section: Original Research Articles
Language : EN
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