Effect of tin addition on corrosion behavior of a low-alloy steel in simulated costal-industrial atmosphere

Abstract The effect of tin addition on the atmospheric corrosion behavior of a low-alloy steel in simulated coastal-industrial atmosphere has been investigated by indoor wet/dry cyclic corrosion test (CCT). The results indicate that tin addition can obviously make the steel substrate more resistant to atmospheric corrosion by suppressing the cathodic H + reduction reaction, and but tin addition is not of obvious beneficial effect when the steel is covered with a thicker rust layer during long-term corrosion process. The reason lies in the fact that the presence of un-reduced H + can lower the electrolyte pH value and lead to a loose and porous rust layer on tin-containing steel sample than that on tin-free steel sample. In addition, the 120 CCT cycles corrosion process of the two steels can be divided into three stages. Both the tin-free and tin-containing steels show an increasing corrosion rate during the initial corrosion stage and then exhibit a decreasing corrosion rate during the second and third corrosion stages. Moreover, tin addition makes the tin-containing steel rust layer have a higher amount of α -FeOOH and lower amount of γ -FeOOH and Fe 3 O 4 than the tin-free steel rust layer.