Stress Corrosion Cracking of an Austenitic Stainless Steel in Nitrite-Containing Chloride Solutions
This article describes the susceptibility of 316L stainless steel to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in a nitrite-containing chloride solution. Slow strain rate testing (SSRT) in 30 wt. % MgCl2 solution established SCC susceptibility, as evidenced by post-SSRT fractography. Addition of nitrite to the chloride solution, which is reported to have inhibitive influence on corrosion of stainless steels, was found to increase SCC susceptibility. The susceptibility was also found to increase with nitrite concentration. This behaviour is explained on the basis of the passivation and pitting characteristics of 316L steel in chloride solution.
The effect of alloyed nitrogen or dissolved nitrate ions on the anodic behaviour of austenitic stainless steel in hydrochloric acid
Abstract The anodic behaviour of high purity stainless steels, based on a 316L composition, has been studied at room temperature in HCl solutions from 1 to 6 M. For all acid concentrations, the presence of 0.22% nitrogen has little or no effect on the active dissolution kinetics at low overpotentials. The effect on the critical current density for passivation is also small for low HCl concentrations ( 4.5 M), no passivation occurs and again nitrogen has little effect. However, for HCl concentrations around 4 M nitrogen reversibly impedes active dissolution at a few hundred mA cm −2 . The effect does not appear to be an oxide passivation, but is more likely to be due to surface enrichment of nitrogen atoms. Implications for localized corrosion are discussed. An effect similar to that of nitrogen alloying is reproduced on a nitrogen free alloy by adding 2 M NaNO 3 to a 4 M HCl solution. This effect is distinct from the passivation of salt-covered surfaces and may be preferable to the latter as an explanation of the increase in pitting potential by nitrate additions to NaCl solutions. Passivation under a salt film is retained to explain the passivation of growing pits above the ‘inhibition potential’.
Corrosion behaviour of steel in solutions containing mixed inhibitive and aggressive ions
Abstract The action of sodium benzoate, sodium chromate and sodium nitrite in relation to the presence of sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, sodium sulphate and sodium sulphide has been studied by means of visual observation as well as potential measurements. It has been found that the critical concentration of the inhibitor for protection in distilled water could tolerate a range of concentration of the aggressive anion. The linear double logarithmic relationship between the concentration of an inhibitive anion and the maximum tolerated concentration of an aggressive anion is only beyond a certain critical concentration of the aggressive anion. The results are interpreted in terms of competitive adsorption between the inhibitor and aggressive ions on the bare metallic parts.