Corrosion Resistance of Titanium and Zirconium In Chemical Plant Exposures★

Abstract

Abstract Corrosion tests were conducted with titanium, zirconium and a number of other metals in a wide variety of chemical plant exposures. Some of the tests were carried out under similar conditions in as many as five different plants. Titanium was found to possess low or, in many cases, nil corrosion rates in such varied exposures as wet chlorine gas, hypochlorous acid, sodium and calcium hypochlorites, sodium and potassium chlorides, sea water and a number of solutions containing wet chlorine. It was also found to be very resistant to many concentrations of calcium chloride, sodium and potassium hydroxides, nitric acid and chlorine-saturated sulfuric acid. Zirconium exhibited low corrosion rates in nitric acid, sodium and potassium hydroxides, hydrochloric acid, dry chlorine, sodium hypochlorite, sodium and potassium chlorides, sea water and some concentrations of calcium chloride and chlorine-saturated sulfuric acid. Results of 116 exposures involving over 800 corrosion rates on 40 different materials are described. 6.3.15