Corrosion Behavior of Sensitized AISI 304 Stainless Steel in Acid Chloride Solution

Corrosion resistance of sensitized austenitic stainless steel (SS) in chloride environments is currently the subject of numerous studies. Most of them are focused on neutral chloride solutions at room temperature and the experiments are carried out on ground stainless steels surfaces. This paper deals with the corrosion behavior of sensitized AISI 304 stainless steel in acid 1 M chloride solution (pH = 1.1) at the temperatures of 20 ± 3 °C and 50 °C. The specimens after sensitization are tested as covered by high-temperature surface oxides (“heat tinted”), and also after their chemical removal to assess the impact of the surface state on corrosion resistance. Potentiodynamic polarization (PP) and exposure immersion test are used as the independent corrosion tests. Microstructure before/after exposure immersion test is evaluated by optical microscopy (OM) and SEM. The results obtained showed that sensitization significantly conditions corrosion regardless of the removal of high-temperature oxides, and the elevated temperature mainly acts as its accelerating factor.