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Mercury resistant Aluminum

Mercury resistant Aluminum

Mercury resistant Aluminum

(OP)
Has anyone heard of an Aluminum that is resistant to corrosion from Mercury?
Thanks for any input!

RE: Mercury resistant Aluminum

Aluminium contact with mercury or mercury compounds is a real no no as it causes severe embrittlement in the form of SCC.  As I remember from practical demonstration in my metallurgy classses the reaction is very severe and causes the metal to virtually fall apart.

If someone has developed such an alloy, then it would be by using some form of barrier coating.

 


RE: Mercury resistant Aluminum

In oil and gas the presence of mercury has caused some failure in equipment with parts in aluminium. Has a general recomendation Al should be avoided if mercury is present in the process fluids.

S.

http://www.corrosionist.com

RE: Mercury resistant Aluminum

a spectacular failure of a aluminum HX in australia ( LNG liquifaction) 2 yrs ago, due to failure of the process to remove all Hg from the source gas. 6 Mos outage ( these HX's are hard to come by).

RE: Mercury resistant Aluminum

Observe all the warnings mentioned above.  
If there is some need to use aluminum in an Hg-containing environment, I suggest that the best barrier coating would be Micro arc oxide (MAO) aka Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) + PTFE copolymer + PTFE.
I.e., Keronite® + Teflon.®

RE: Mercury resistant Aluminum

Dig through your copy of Metals Handbook vol 11 (Failure Analysis) and you'll find a beautiful example of liquid metal embrittlmeent that occurs when aluminum is exposed to mercury.  I agree with th eother postings that say Hg + Al = NoNo.

RE: Mercury resistant Aluminum

I guess the answer to the OP is No!

As an engineer in Petrochem, the OP question had my alarm bells ringing too!


We recently spent some bucks installing mercury removal beds due to a feed slate change - we have several Al plate finned hX's that otherwise would have been compromised.

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