Passivity breakdown of 13Cr stainless steel under high chloride and CO2 environment

Herein, the effect of high chloride ion(Cl~-) concentration on the corrosion behavior and passive film breakdown of 13Cr martensitic stainless steel under COenvironment was demonstrated. The Cl~- concentration was varied from 30 to 150 g/L and cyclic potentiodynamic polarization was conducted to investigate the influence of the Cl~- concentration on the corrosion potential(E), passive breakdown potential(E), and repassivation potential(E). The results of the polarization curves revealed that 13Cr stainless steel is susceptible to pitting under high Cl~- concentration. The passive breakdown potential and repassivation potential decreased with the increase of Cl-concentration. The semiconducting behavior of the passive film was investigated by Mott-Schottky analysis and the point defect model(PDM). It was observed that the iron cation vacancies and oxygen vacancies were continuously generated by autocatalytic reactions and the higher Cl~- concentration resulted in higher vacancies in the passive film. Once the excess vacancies condensed at the metal/film interface, the passive film became locally detached from the metal, which led to the breakdown of the passive film.