Another major alloying element commonly found in

austenitic and duplex stainless steels is nickel. Being a

more noble element than iron, nickel in stainless steels

helps to improve the corrosion resistance. Figure 2 shows

the polarization behaviour of the nickel-containing austenitic

304 stainless steel and two ferritic grades in naturally aerated

sulphuric acid solutions.

It is clearly seen from Fig. 2 that the 9% nickel in 304

stainless steel has a corrosion potential that is >400 mV more

positive or noble than the ferritic Fe17Cr stainless steel. Thishift of corrosion potential in the noble
direction indicateincreased thermodynamic stability of the metal/solution system.

Another marked feature is that the peak passivation

current density for the nickel-containing 304 steel is reduced

by over two orders of magnitude when compared with the

ferritic Fe17Cr. Nickel in the alloy is also able to reduce the

passive current density within the passive potential range.

alloy composition is illustrated in Fig. 4.

The passive film on stainless steels has its own composition that is strongly enriched in chromium.
For an alloy containing 15% Cr in its bulk composition, the chromium content in the top layer of
passive film can be as high as 80% (Fig. 5). In Fig. 5, the chromium enrichment factor (defined as the
ratio of chromium content in the passive film to that of the alloy) is plotted against the film thickness
for two alloys passivated in 0.1 M sulphuric acid at 680 mV vs. saturated calomel electrode for 1 h. It
is clearly seen that 4% of molybdenum in the alloy (Fe15Cr4Mo) markedly increased the chromium
content in the passive film. It is also seen that the chromium enrichment factor approaches unity at
a thickness of ¾3 nm, which is considered to be the passive film thickness.

In addition to the dependence of alloy composition, the Chromium content in the passive film is also
dependent on the passivating potential. Figure 6 shows that the passive m formed at a higher
passivating potential (C680 mV) has higher chromium content than that formed at a lower
passivating potential (C400 mV).

An interesting observation for the nickel-containing stainless steel is that nickel is actually depleted
in the passive film

8,9

and in some cases is found to be enriched in the metallic form immediately beneath the passive film.
The surface analysis results in Fig. 7 showed that chromium is enriched in the passive films but that
nickel is depleted in the nickel-containing steel.