Fungi corrosion of high-strength aluminum alloys with different microstructures caused by marine Aspergillus terreus under seawater drop

Fungi corrosion of aluminum alloys (AA) in atmospheric conditions is a hot topic. In this work, fungi corrosion studies of high-strength aluminum alloys (named AA 7075–1# and AA 7075–2#) were conducted. Results demonstrate that AA 7075–2# with a big grain size suffers from severe localized corrosion caused by Aspergillus terreus with the biggest value of 4.08 mm/y. A. terreus have good biological activities, and the sessile spores in 30 µL droplet can reach 2.51 × 1010 spores/cm2 after 17 days of testing. Corrosion of AA under seawater drop is a result of multi-factor coupling, but the contribution of A. terreus is dominant.