High Temperature Corrosion Performance of Carbon Steel Coated with Iron Aluminide in Mixture of O2 and SO2 Atmosphere

Abstract

In this investigation the surface of an aluminized sample of plain carbon steel was melted and alloyed using a tingsten inert gas (TIG) welding process to produce iron-aluminide intermetallic phases on the surface. The produced coating was then characterized by SEM and EDS and its high-temperature properties in O2 + 1%SO2 gas were examined. The results showed that the Fe3Al coating produced could protect the substrate as it was subjected to the corroding gases at 700oC due to the formation of an alumina layer between the substrate and an outer layer of Fe2O3. At 900oC, the coating could only protect the substrate for 64 h. The lack of further protection at this temperature is attributed to the decrease in the protective properties of alumina with an increase in its temperature and the lack of presence of enough Al atoms in the coating for the repair of the defects formed in the alumina layer.

Keywords

• iron aluminide
• high temperature corrosion
• plain carbon steel