RESEARCH ARTICLE

Corrosion behavior of Fe–Cr–Ni based alloys exposed to molten MgCl2–KCl–NaCl salt with over-added Mg corrosion inhibitor

  • Rui Yu 1,2 ,
  • Qing Gong 3 ,
  • Hao Shi , 1 ,
  • Yan Chai 3 ,
  • Alexander Bonk 3 ,
  • Alfons Weisenburger 1 ,
  • Dihua Wang 2 ,
  • Georg Müller 1 ,
  • Thomas Bauer 4 ,
  • Wenjin Ding , 3
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  • 1. Institute for Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
  • 2. School of Resources and Environmental Science, Wuhan University (WHU), Wuhan 430072, China
  • 3. Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
  • 4. Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 70569 Cologne, Germany
h.shi@mpie.de
wenjin.ding@dlr.de

Received date: 31 Jan 2023

Accepted date: 20 Jun 2023

Published date: 15 Oct 2023

Copyright

2023 Higher Education Press

Abstract

MgCl2–NaCl–KCl salts mixture shows great potential as a high-temperature (> 700 °C) thermal energy storage material in next-generation concentrated solar power plants. Adding Mg into molten MgCl2–NaCl–KCl salt as a corrosion inhibitor is one of the most effective and cost-effective methods to mitigate the molten salt corrosion of commercial Fe–Cr–Ni alloys. However, it is found in this work that both stainless steel 310 and Incoloy 800H samples were severely corroded after 500 h immersion test at 700 °C when the alloy samples directly contacted with the over-added Mg in the liquid form. The corrosion attack is different from the classical impurity-driven corrosion in molten chloride salts found in previous work. Microscopic analysis indicates that Ni preferentially leaches out of alloy matrix due to the tendency to form MgNi2/Mg2Ni compounds. The Ni-depletion leads to the formation of a porous corrosion layer on both alloys, with the thickness around 204 µm (stainless steel 310) and 1300 µm (Incoloy 800H), respectively. These results suggest that direct contact of liquid Mg with Ni-containing alloys should be avoided during using Mg as a corrosion inhibitor for MgCl2–NaCl–KCl or other chlorides for high temperature heat storage and transfer.

Cite this article

Rui Yu , Qing Gong , Hao Shi , Yan Chai , Alexander Bonk , Alfons Weisenburger , Dihua Wang , Georg Müller , Thomas Bauer , Wenjin Ding . Corrosion behavior of Fe–Cr–Ni based alloys exposed to molten MgCl2–KCl–NaCl salt with over-added Mg corrosion inhibitor[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2023 , 17(10) : 1608 -1619 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-023-2349-1

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This research has been performed within the DLR-DAAD fellowship program (Grant No. 57540125), which is funded by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and German Aerospace Center (DLR).
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