Corrosion behavior of a new 25Cr-3Ni-7Mn-0.66 N duplex stainless steel in artificial seawater

Abstract

Abstract A new duplex 25Cr-3Ni-7Mn-0.66 N alloy was prepared in a vacuum arc re-melting furnace and characterized by metallographic and EPMA methods. Its corrosion behavior was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and a Mott-Schottky (M-S) analysis in artificial seawater at room temperature and compared with those of super and normal commercial duplex stainless steel (SDSS and DSS). No significant difference in the open circuit potentials and pitting potentials was observed. Its passive film current density lies between those of SDSS and DSS. This was confirmed by EIS analysis. A pit attack was observed on the δ-phase for all duplex samples, because the PREN16 of the δ-phase was lower than that of the γ-phase. From the Mott-Schottky analysis, the passive films were found to be composed of bi-layer structures, a p-type semiconductor inner layer, and a n-type semiconductor outer layer. The degree of defect as well as the effect of nitrogen in passive film layer are discussed with respect to the point defect model.