Corrosion Behavior of Annealed Steels with Different Carbon Contents (0.002, 0.17, 0.43 and 0.7% C) in Freely Aerated 3.5% NaCl Solution

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Four annealed carbon steels with different carbon contents (0.002, 0.17, 0.43, and 0.7% C), consisting of ferrite, ferrite-pearlite and fully pearlite microstructures, were selected to understand the corrosion behavior of carbon steel as a function of carbon content in freely aerated 3.5% NaCl solution. Dynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance and linear polarization methods were used. The corrosion rate obtained from the different carbon steels was found to increase greatly from ultra-low carbon steel (0.002%) to low carbon steel (0.17%) due to the presence of pearlite in the low carbon steel. However, the increase in corrosion rate was marginal with the increase in carbon content from low carbon (0.17%) to medium (0.43% C) and high carbon steels (0.7% C). The mirostrucural evolution of the steels before and after polarization test without etching as observed by scanning electron microscopy could show that the corrosion behavior of the steels with the presence of pearlite was due to the combined effect from % pearlite, interlamellar spacing and cementite/ferrite area ratio in pearlite. Pearlite morphology also led to the differential corrosion within the pearlite colony in all the steels except the steel with 0.002% C. Catalytic activity of cementite on enhancing oxygen reduction reaction attributes to the higher corrosion rates in case of the steels with the presence of pearlite.