Pit formation on stainless steel surfaces pre-treated with biosurfactants produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens

Today, it is widely established that the surface tension of water can be reduced by some microorganisms capable of synthesizing surface-active compounds called biosurfactants (BS). BS characteristics depend on the microorganism that produces them and therefore, on the microorganism culture conditions.Some studies on chemical surfactants have shown that the adsorption of surface-active compounds plays a major role in corrosion; indeed they are used as a good corrosion inhibition tool.The purpose of this study was first, to estimate the importance and behavior of the stainless steels passive film on the adsorption of BS, produced by the Gram negative bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens, and secondly, to study the impact of these treatments on the pitting corrosion.In this paper, the galvanostatic polarization technique, used as accelerated method for determining the characteristic pit potentials on stainless steels, is examined. Pit growth, shape and cover formation were also observed. The surface topography of the corroded specimens was investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).