Unmasking chloride attack on the passive film of metals

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04942-x
• Publication Date: 2018-06-26T10:34:17Z
• Authors: B. Zhang; J. Wang; B. Wu; X. W. Guo; Y. J. Wang; D. Chen; Y. C. Zhang; K. Du; E. E. Oguzie; X. L. Ma
• Keywords: Passivity; Lattice (music)

Nanometer-thick passive films on metals usually impart remarkable resistance to general corrosion but are susceptible localized attack in certain aggressive media, leading material failure with pronounced adverse economic and safety consequences. Over the past decades, several classic theories have been proposed accepted, based hypotheses theoretical models, oftentimes, not sufficiently nor directly corroborated by experimental evidence. Here we show results structure of film formed a FeCr15Ni15 single crystal chloride-free chloride-containing media. We use aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy capture chloride ion accumulation at metal/film interface, lattice expansion metal side, undulations structural inhomogeneity most which had previously rejected existing models. This work unmasks, atomic scale, mechanism chloride-induced passivity breakdown that is known occur various metallic materials.