Untypical Electrochemical Corrosion Behavior of High-Nitrogen Austenitic Stainless Steel: Non-Pitting in Transpassivation

doi:10.1007/s40195-024-01743-8

Abstract

Abstract:

The transpassivation and pitting corrosion behavior of a high-nitrogen stainless steel (HNS), Fe18Cr15Mn3Mo0.92N, were systematically investigated by electrochemical analysis, morphology observation, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy surface analysis. It was surprisingly found that no pitting corrosion occurred in the transpassivation region of HNS. This electrochemical corrosion behavior is untypical for stainless steels, i.e., the traditional critical pitting potential method was invalid for HNS. Both N and Cr enrichments in the transpassivation film on HNS were found extremely higher than those in the passivation film. The N existed in the form of [CrN] complex, which could stabilize the above both films. Besides, the corrosion product of N was detected as NH₃ that exhibited an effective corrosion inhibition effect. On this basis, although the transition of Cr from 3-valent to 6-valent was confirmed, the transpassivation film on HNS still maintained it high stability and no pitting was found to occur. Therefore, the real pitting resistance of HNS should be higher than the expected before. And the stable transpassivation film played an important role in its untypical pitting corrosion resistance.

Key words: High nitrogen, Stainless steel, Passivation, Transpassivation, Pitting corrosion

Qisi Wang, Qingchuan Wang, Xingxing Wang, Fan Liu, Ke Yang. Untypical Electrochemical Corrosion Behavior of High-Nitrogen Austenitic Stainless Steel: Non-Pitting in Transpassivation[J]. Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters), 2024, 37(10): 1785-1792.

Figures/Tables 11

Table 1 Chemical composition of experimental HNS (wt%)

Material	C	Cr	Mn	Mo	N	Ni	Si	P	S	Fe
0.92N	< 0.02	17.4	15.3	3.09	0.92	0.012	0.31	0.010	0.0094	Bal.

Fig. 1 Potentiodynamic curve of HNS and the surface morphology after potentiodynamic polarization

Fig. 2 Potentiostatic polarization curves of HNS at different potentials

Fig. 3 Nyquist plots of HNS after potentiostatic polarization at different potentials

Fig. 4 a Bode plots of HNS; two equivalent circuits were used for simulating the impedance spectra: b two time constants, and c one time constant

Table 2 Fitting results of EIS measurements for HNS at different potentials

Polarized potential (V)	R_s (Ω cm²)	R₁ (kΩ cm²)	R₂ (kΩ cm²)	C (μF cm⁻²)	CPE (μF sⁿ cm⁻²)	n
0.5	3.85 ± 0.35	138.62 ± 10.2	7.49 ± 1.02	340.7 ± 20. 0	83.94 ± 17. 83	0.820 ± 0. 004
0.7	5.29 ± 0.53	210.32 ± 20.5	12.27 ± 2.15	219.4 ± 18.5	44.31 ± 10.15	0.845 ± 0.015
0.9	6.66 ± 0.85	32.48 ± 2.1	9.88 ± 1.85	218.2 ± 16.5	41.12 ± 8.21	0.843 ± 0.003
1.1	4.42 ± 0.45	4.19 ± 0.08	-	38.6 ± 5.1	-	-
1.3	3.23 ± 0.25	0.63 ± 0.05	-	94.8 ± 5.8	-

Fig. 5 Oxide film on HNS: a oxygen depth distribution; b film thickness

Fig. 6 Concentrations of Cr represented by Cr/Fe ratio of their atomic fraction in passive film on HNS at different potentials

Fig. 7 With different sputtering depths, Cr 2p3/2 spectra in passivation film on HNS polarized at different potentials

Fig. 8 Change of N content (at.%) in passive film on HNS with sputtering time

Fig. 9 With different sputtering depths, N1s spectra in passivation film on HNS polarized at different potentials

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