Inhibition effect of chromate on the passivation and pitting corrosion of a duplex stainless steel in LiBr solutions using electrochemical techniques

The electrochemical behavior of duplex stainless steel (DSS) in LiBr media was investigated by anodic cyclic polarization curves and AC impedance measurements. The effect of bromide concentration and the presence of chromate in the solutions on the corrosion behavior of AISI 2205 was studied. Cyclic polarization curve analyses showed that there was different pitting susceptibility of passive films depending on the LiBr concentration. Pitting potential decreases with LiBr concentration in a semilogarithmic scale following two different slopes. Chromate presence displaces pitting potentials towards more positive values at low LiBr concentrations but it has no effect when LiBr concentration increases.The comparative analysis carried out in LiBr and LiBr chromate-containing solutions at two different concentrations, 0.016 M and 0.032 M, verifies the assumption that halogen ions facilitate inhibitor adsorption. The addition of halides strongly increased the inhibition efficiency of chromate. The passive film becomes more resistant when bromide concentration increases, although film thickness decreases.