Pitting studies of plain carbon steel in chloride containing borate buffer solution

Abstract

Passivation is the process of temporary or permanent halt in degradation or corrosion rate of a metal due to the formation of different types of surface layers or films that protects the underlying metal. Pitting corrosion is the breakdown of the surface film due to presence of aggressive ions such as chloride ions. The breakdown of the passivity film is characterized by breakdown potential (Vc) which is dependent on the pH of the solution, concentration of the aggressive ions and the potential sweep rate. This study used the Point Defect Model to characterize the breakdown potential with respect to varying pH and concentration. The pH of the solution was kept a constant at 10.4. The breakdown potential is found to decrease with increasing chloride concentration and decrease with increasing pH. The cumulative distribution of the breakdown potential was found to be in well agreement with the experimentally obtained data. Optical micrographs showed stable and Meta stable pitting. The parameters from point defect model was found to be in well agreement with the experimental data.