Effect of TiN addition on corrosion behavior of spark plasma sintered 304L austenitic stainless steel in chloride media

Abstract

The corrosion hazards emanating from industries where the use of stainless steel is inevitable has led to the development of materials which are capable of withstanding corrosive environments. In addition to specimen sectioned from a hot rolled austenitic stainless-steel plate, the effect of different weight percentages (2, 4 and 6%) of titanium nitride (TiN) reinforcement addition on the corrosion property of sintered austenitic stainless steel were investigated in 3.5 wt% NaCl electrolyte. Chronopotentiometry and potentiodynamic polarization techniques were used in analysing the corrosion resistance of specimens in the electrolyte. Optical micrographs from a high-resolution microscope showed the formation of more pits on the substrate surfaces of hot rolled and unreinforced sintered specimens, while fewer or no pits were observed on specimens with TiN addition. The corrosion potentials and current densities of specimens obtained from chronoamperometry and potentiodynamic polarization plots further confirmed an improvement in the corrosion resistance of specimens with 2 and 4 wt% TiN reinforcement.