Pitting mechanism on an austenite stainless steel nanocrystalline coating investigated by electrochemical noise and in-situ AFM analysis

The pitting corrosion behavior of an austenite stainless steel with polycrystalline (PC) and nanocrystalline (NC) microstructure in 3.5% NaCl solution was investigated by electrochemical noise (EN) and in-situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) under anodic potential. The power spectral density (PSD) and wavelet transform have been employed to analyze the EN data. The pitting corrosion resistance of the NC coating was much higher than that of the PC alloy, with different pitting mechanisms observed for both specimens; a slow metastable pit generation and healing for the PC alloy and a fast metastable pit initiation and death for the NC coating. There was good conformity between the EN and the in-situ AFM analysis. The pitting corrosion mechanism has been discussed according to the EN analysis and the in-situ AFM observations.