Influence of potentials on the tribocorrosion behavior of 304SS in artificial seawater

Corrosive wear involves chemical and mechanical mechanisms and the combination of these mechanisms often results in accelerated materials degradation. In this work, pin-on-disk friction experiments were carried out in artificial seawater to investigate the influence of applied potential on the tribocorrosion behavior of 304SS. The obtained results demonstrate that when the applied potential was below the pitting potential of passive film, corrosion and wear interacted to make the total material loss increase obviously; however, when it exceeded this pitting potential, corrosion was inhibited by the rubbing process. Study of the worn surfaces and the cross-sections indicate that depending on varying applied potential, different features of wear tracks were involved, and it was the form of mechanical and corrosion-accelerated delamination wear that determined the total mass loss of 304SS during tribocorrosion.