The effect of alloyed nitrogen or dissolved nitrate ions on the anodic behaviour of austenitic stainless steel in hydrochloric acid

The anodic behaviour of high purity stainless steels, based on a 316L composition, has been studied at room temperature in HCl solutions from 1 to 6 M. For all acid concentrations, the presence of 0.22% nitrogen has little or no effect on the active dissolution kinetics at low over-potentials. The effect on the critical current density for passivation is also small for low HCl concentrations (<3 M). At high HCl concentrations (>4.5 M), no passivation occurs and again nitrogen has little effect. However, for HCl concentrations around 4 M nitrogen reversibly impedes active dissolution at a few hundred mA cm-2. The effect does not appear to be an oxide passivation, but is more likely to be due to surface enrichment of nitrogen atoms. Implications for localized corrosion are discussed. An effect similar to that of nitrogen alloying is reproduced on a nitrogen free alloy by adding 2 M NaNO3 to a 4M HCl solution. This effect is distinct from the passivation of salt-covered surfaces and may be preferable to the latter as an explanation of the increase in pitting potential by nitrate additions to NaCl solutions. Passivation under a salt film is retained to explain the passivation of growing pits above the inhibition potential. (authors)