Innovative Technologies to Improve the Corrosion Resistance of Stainless Steels

Abstract

Oxidation is one of the main degradation mechanisms that affects most industrial components. Stainless steels are used in components and equipment in the chemical and petrochemical industries (e.g., valves, plates, columns, capacitors and desalination units). Generally, the steels used in these applications have physical, mechanical and chemical properties that give them corrosion resistance. However, contaminants existing in the processed fluids are the main factor causing the increase in corrosion rate, leading to significant financial losses, which requires the development of innovative technologies to protect the metal from the action of aggressive environment. The paper presents two innovative surface protection techniques used to improve the corrosion resistance of stainless steels. Thus, Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) and Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) techniques are used to obtain deposition of hybrid nanostructures of binary oxides and porphyrins on W1.4034 martensitic stainless steel, according to EN 10083-3.