Effect of tin addition on corrosion behavior of a low-alloy steel in simulated costal-industrial atmosphere

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2019.01.008

Abstract

Abstract:

The effect of tin addition on the atmospheric corrosion behavior of a low-alloy steel in simulated coastal-industrial atmosphere has been investigated by indoor wet/dry cyclic corrosion test (CCT). The results indicate that tin addition can obviously make the steel substrate more resistant to atmospheric corrosion by suppressing the cathodic H⁺ reduction reaction, and but tin addition is not of obvious beneficial effect when the steel is covered with a thicker rust layer during long-term corrosion process. The reason lies in the fact that the presence of un-reduced H⁺ can lower the electrolyte pH value and lead to a loose and porous rust layer on tin-containing steel sample than that on tin-free steel sample. In addition, the 120 CCT cycles corrosion process of the two steels can be divided into three stages. Both the tin-free and tin-containing steels show an increasing corrosion rate during the initial corrosion stage and then exhibit a decreasing corrosion rate during the second and third corrosion stages. Moreover, tin addition makes the tin-containing steel rust layer have a higher amount of α-FeOOH and lower amount of γ-FeOOH and Fe₃O₄ than the tin-free steel rust layer.

Key words: Weathering steel, Atmospheric corrosion, Coastal-industrial atmosphere, Tin addition, Rusting evolution

Bo Liu, Xin Mu, Ying Yang, Long Hao, Xueyong Ding, Junhua Dong, Zhe Zhang, Huaxing Hou, Wei Ke. Effect of tin addition on corrosion behavior of a low-alloy steel in simulated costal-industrial atmosphere[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2019, 35(7): 1228-1239.

Figures/Tables 14

Table 1 Chemical composition of tin-free and tin-containing low-alloy steels (wt.%).

Sample	C	Si	Mn	P	S	Nb	Ti	Al	Cu	Sn
No. 1	0.078	0.171	1.16	0.006	0.004	0.007	0.018	0.035	0.007	--
No. 2	0.074	0.150	1.21	0.008	0.002	0.011	0.014	0.028	0.007	0.074

Fig. 1. Microstructure of (a) tin-free low-alloy steel (No. 1) and (b) tin-containing low-alloy steel (No. 2).

Fig. 2. Corrosion kinetics evolution of two low-alloy steels in simulated coastal-industrial atmosphere as a function of CCT cycle: (a) linear plot of weight gain; (b) average corrosion rate and linear fitting results in log-log coordinates.

Table 2 Linear fitting results of corrosion kinetics data in Fig. 2(b).

Sample	Stage I	Stage II	Stage III
Tin-free steel	logΔW/N = -3.32 + 0.29logN R² = 0.98 (N≤ 4)	logΔW/N = -2.97-0.24logN R² = 0.96 (4<N≤ 20)	logΔW/N = -2.70-0.43logN R² = 0.99 (20<N≤120)
Tin-containing steel	logΔW/N = -3.42 + 0.15logN R² = 0.94 (N≤ 10)	logΔW/N = -3.07-0.20logN R² = 0.92 (10<N≤ 20)	logΔW/N = -2.72-0.45logN R² = 0.99 (20<N≤120)

Fig. 3. Calculated instantaneous corrosion rate evolution of two low-alloy steels in the simulated coastal-industrial atmosphere as a function of CCT cycle.

Fig. 4. Macroscopic corrosion morphologies of rusted tin-free steel at (a) 10 CCT, (b) 20 CCT, (c) 60 CCT, (d) 120 CCT and rusted tin-containing steel at (a') 10 CCT, (b') 20 CCT, (c') 60 CCT, (d') 120 CCT as a function of CCT cycle.

Fig. 5. Cross sectional morphologies of rusted tin-free steel at (a) 10 CCT, (b) 20 CCT, (c) 60 CCT, (d) 120 CCT and rusted tin-containing steel at (a') 10 CCT, (b') 20 CCT, (c') 60 CCT, (d') 120 CCT as a function of CCT cycle.

Fig. 6. XRD patterns of powdered rust on two low-alloy steels as a function of CCT cycle: (a) 10 CCT; (b) 20 CCT; (c) 60 CCT; (d) 120 CCT.

Fig. 7. Polarization curves of tin-free steel and tin-containing steel as a function of CCT cycle: (a) 0 CCT; (b) 4 CCT; (c) 8 CCT; (d) 20 CCT; (e) 60 CCT; (f) 120 CCT.

Fig. 8. (a, b) Modulus and (a', b') phase angle diagrams for (a, a') tin-free and (b, b') tin-containing low-alloy steels in corrosion electrolyte as a function of CCT cycle.

Fig. 9. Equivalent electrical circuits for EIS data of two low-alloy steels at different CCT cycle: (a) un-corroded 0 CCT sample; (b) corroded samples with different CCT cycle.

Table 3 Fitting results of EIS data of rusted tin-free steel and tin-containing steel samples as a function of CCT cycle.

CCT cycle	R_s	Q_O (mS sⁿ cm^-2)		R_O	Y_w-O	Q_H (mS sⁿ cm^-2)		R_H	Y_w-H	Q_rust (mS sⁿ cm^-2)		R_rust	Q_dl (mS sⁿ cm^-2)		R_ct
CCT cycle	(Ω cm²)	Y_O	n_O	(Ω cm²)	(mS s^0.5 cm^-2)	Y_H	n_H	(Ω cm²)	(mS sⁿ cm^-2)	Y_rust	n_rust	(Ω cm²)	Y_dl	n_dl	(Ω cm²)
Tin-free steel
0	36.60	6.3480	0.6688	5.157	0.8538	0.86950	0.9559	14.25	-	-	-	-	1.0280	0.9600	72.41
4	20.01	-	-	-	-	0.11520	0.6051	24.85	0.0026	2.341	0.1919	29.97	0.1176	0.1775	9.450
8	19.21	-	-	-	-	0.00005	0.9098	33.68	100.70	72.13	0.4560	41.17	26.520	0.2801	29.57
20	21.34	-	-	-	-	0.06155	0.3334	42.58	0.0626	32.19	0.5803	139.2	17.550	0.3863	160.6
60	21.59	-	-	-	-	12.6400	0.4419	43.33	2.0250	0.9437	0.4856	223.9	0.0052	0.4800	212.5
120	21.01	-	-	-	-	5.26300	0.3980	43.89	0.2394	2.582	0.6626	413.3	0.0041	0.5028	267.7
Tin-containing steel
0	39.45	9.7840	0.1048	11.64	0.3876	0.53080	0.9199	50.09	-	-	-	-	0.9040	0.9800	210.4
4	21.05	-	-	-	-	0.15380	0.5947	28.58	0.0187	1.418	0.6576	25.08	0.0090	0.1815	13.97
8	20.62	-	-	-	-	0.00008	0.7834	37.53	0.0898	108.8	0.5184	47.42	35.220	0.2802	23.75
20	22.43	-	-	-	-	0.02632	0.3888	48.20	0.0693	15.12	0.3222	133.5	32.430	0.1877	156.7
60	22.09	-	-	-	-	12.1800	0.7992	53.30	0.0063	20.02	0.5729	190.7	1.3290	0.1094	232.7
120	21.84	-	-	-	-	12.8500	0.3548	53.50	0.0234	1.762	0.5205	188.1	0.2188	0.2195	230.3

Fig. 10. EPMA results of tin element distribution in rust layer on tin-containing steel after 120 CCT cycle.

Fig. 11. XPS spectra and sub-peak fitting analysis of Sn element in rust layer on tin-containing low-alloy steel after 120 CCT cycles.

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