Effect of nitrogen and argon as iron corrosion inhibitors in Pb-Mg eutectic

Abstract

The corrosion of steel due to interaction with molten metal in a nuclear reactor is an important thing to study. Liquid metal is corrosive to cladding material (steel). One solution to overcome this problem is to inject an inhibitor into the liquid metal. This study aims to compare the potential of nitrogen and argon in reducing the rate of iron corrosion on Pb-Mg eutectic using molecular dynamics methods. In this study, we use the iron to represent steel. The corrosion rate of the iron is described by the diffusion coefficient profile. A low diffusion coefficient profile indicates low iron corrosion. The results showed that nitrogen and argon had almost the same potential as iron corrosion inhibitors in Pb-Mg eutectic. The inhibitor concentration (both nitrogen and argon) was able to inhibit corrosion optimally at a concentration of 0.1798 wt% (temperature 973K). The inhibition of iron corrosion by nitrogen was 96.56% while the inhibition of iron corrosion by argon was 96.23%. If we compare the two inhibitors, it will be easier to use nitrogen, because the composition of nitrogen in the atmosphere is much higher than argon.