Bridge for the thermodynamics and kinetics of electrochemical corrosion: Designing a corrosion–resistant HP–13Cr stainless steel by Cu alloying for use in an H2S–containing geothermal environment

The dissolution–ionization–diffusion–deposition (DIDD) model was used for developing a corrosion–resistant stainless steel (SS) by the means of alloying and the guidelines for the process were proposed. The novel HP–13Cr–Cu SS was designed to resist corrosion in H2S–containing geothermal environment. The results indicated that the preferential deposition of CuS promoted the heterogeneous nucleation rate of Cr2O3, FeCr2O3, and FeS, which formed denser corrosion product layer. As a result, this alloy exhibited a low corrosion rate and a high sulfide stress cracking (SSC) resistance. The results were consistent with the theoretical calculation conducted by the DIDD model.