Effect of alkali and chloride ions on pitting corrosion behaviour of boron added modified 9Cr-1Mo steel

Modified 9Cr-1Mo ferritic steel is used as a structural material for the steam generator of Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) due to its high temperature corrosion and oxidation resistance. Since all the components (tube, tube sheet and shell) of steam generator are made of modified 9Cr-1Mo, it is also required to be resistant against general and localized corrosion. Modified 9Cr-1Mo steel with 100 ppm boron addition is being considered as the structural material for the steam generators of future fast reactors, owing to its improved creep properties. In the present work, an attempt has been made to study the pitting corrosion behaviour of this material in alkaline environment containing chloride ions. Alkaline environment was chosen to simulate the caustic condition generated in the steam generator due to the accidental leak of feed water containing chloride ions (as impurity) with hot sodium. Potentiodynamic anodic polarization studies were carried out in deaerated 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5M sodium hydroxide solutions containing 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5M sodium chloride. During the experiments current value was allowed to increase up to 1 mA to ensure that stable pits were developed. Pitting potentials (E_pp) were determined from the anodic polarization diagrams. The pitted specimens etched in Villela's reagent were observed under an optical microscope as well as a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Most of the pits observed under optical microscope were found to be hemispherical in nature. The diameters of 30 random pits were measured (two diameters at right angles for each pit) and an average diameter for each pit was calculated