Synthesis of zirconium diboride and its application in the protection of stainless steel surface in harsh environment

Abstract

Surface degradation of steel is one of the key problems of steel end user because of the electrochemical reaction at the steel surface caused by atmospheric weather condition. The major problem with steel is its surface degradation because of the electrochemical reaction at the surface from the atmospheric weather condition. To address this issue, zirconium diboride anticorrosive film has been fabricated on stainless steel by the chemical process. The synthesis of ZrB2 (~ 150 nm) has been carried out at via reaction of ZrO2 nanoparticles (10 nm) with amorphous boron at 1200 °C under argon atmosphere. The scalable doctor blade technique has been employed for the fabrication of ZrB2 film. The electrochemical performance, viz linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) studies of ZrB2 on 304 grade stainless steel (SS), shows highly anticorrosive behaviour with excellent protection efficiency (up to 98% in acidic media) as compared to bare 304SS in neutral, acidic and alkaline media.