Corrosion Mechanism of Nickel-Containing Stainless Steels in Concentrated Aqueous Solutions of Sulfuric Acid

Abstract

The present investigation was undertaken to interpret the spontaneous oscillating activation-passivation corrosion behavior of nickel-containing stainless steel (SS) in concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4) solutions using a galvanic passivation model. This was attempted by modeling the oscillating sequence of UNS S30403 in 93.5 wt% H2SO4 at 60°C using a nickel sulfide/nickel (NiS/Ni)-UNS S43000 (a nickel-free SS with similar chromium content to …