The effect of hydrostatic extrusion on resistance of 316 austenitic stainless steel to pit nucleation

The resistance to pit nucleation of an austenitic 316 stainless steel was investigated in an aggressive environment containing Cl− ions in the as-received state, and after a heavy deformation by hydrostatic extrusion (HE) leading to nanostructurisation.XRD and TEM were used to examine structural changes introduced by HE treatment. The corrosion resistance of 316 stainless steel was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization in a borate buffer + 0.1 M NaCl. The results show that the HE processed material exhibits an extended stable passivity region by about 0.4 V or more, as compared to that of the as-received one.