A Study on the Crevice Corrosion for Ferritic Stainless Steel by Micro Capillary Tube Method

The aim of this study is to investigate the initiation and propagation of crevice corrosion for ferritic stainless steel in artificial crevice based on micro capillary tube method. The 430 stainless steel in artificial crevice is potentiostatically polarized in different sodium chloride solutions. Potentiodynamic and potentiostatic polarization data were measured in situ. The potentials in the crevice were measured by depth profile using the 0.04 mm diameter micro capillary tube inserted in the crevice. The potentials in the crevice ranged from -220 mV to -360 mV vs SCE from opening to bottom of crevice, which are lower than the external surface potential, -200 mV vs SCE. Such a potential drop induced the change of the metal surface state from passive to active. The surface of metal is located in passive state in -200 mV but the inner surface keeps active state below -220 mV, Thus these results show that the It drop mechanism in the crevice was more objective for evaluation and the method was easier to reproduce. Therefore the potential drop is one of the reasons for crevice corrosion by measuring the potentials in narrow crevice with a new micro measuring system.