• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.93-102
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• 2009

The direct-current electroetching of high purity aluminum in hot aqueous-chloride solution produces a high density of micrometer-wide tunnels whose walls are made up of the {100} planes and penetrate aluminum in the <100> directions at rates of micrometer per second. In the process of the alternating-current pitting of aluminum, cathodic polarization plays an important role in the nucleation and growth of the pits during the subsequent polarization. The direct-current tunnel etching and alternating-current etching of aluminum are basically related to the formation of poorly crystallized or amorphous passive films. If the passive film forms on the wall, a natural misfit exists between the film and the aluminum substrate, which in turn gives rise to stress in both the film and the substrate. Even though the amorphous films do not have directed properties, their stresses are influenced by the substrate orientation. The films on elastically soft substrate are likely to be less stressed and more stable than those on elastically hard substrate. The hardest and softest planes of aluminum are the {111} and {100} planes, respectively. Therefore, the films on the {111} substrates are most likely to be attacked, and those on the {100} substrates are least likely to be attacked. For the tunnel etching, it follows that the tunnel walls tend to consist of the {100} planes. Meanwhile, the tunnel tip, where active corrosion takes place, tend to be made of four closely packed {111} planes in order to minimize the surface energy, which gives rise to the <100> tunnel etching.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.2982-2989
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• 2021

One of the consequences of the 475 ℃ embrittlement of duplex stainless steels is the reduction of the resistance to localized corrosion. Therefore, the detection of this type of embrittlement before the material exhibits significant loss in toughness, and corrosion resistance is important to ensure the structural integrity of critical components under corrosion threats. In this research, conductivity measurements are performed using the alternating current potential drop (ACPD) technique with using a portable four-point probe as a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) method for detecting the embrittlement in a 2507 (UNS S32750) super duplex stainless steel (SDSS) aged at 475 ℃ from as-received condition to 300 h. The electric conductivity results were compared against two electrochemical tests namely double loop electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation (DL-EPR) and critical pitting temperature (CPT). Mechanical tests and the microstructure characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging are conducted to track the progress of embrittlement. It is shown that the electric conductivity correlates with the changes in impact energy, microhardness, and CPT corrosion tests result demonstrating the feasibility of the four-point probe as a possible field-deployable method for evaluating the 475 ℃ embrittlement of 2507 SDSS.