Effect of aging on the corrosion resistance of 2101 lean duplex stainless steel

The microstructure and localized corrosion behavior of a 2101 lean duplex stainless steel aged at 700 °C were investigated. The results showed that changes in the microstructure of the duplex stainless steel, due to the formation of precipitates, affected its pitting corrosion resistance. The values of the pitting potential and the critical pitting temperature dropped drastically before aging time up to 30 min. The potentiostatic pitting corrosion measurement indicated more sensitive to the small amount of precipitates compared to the potentiodynamic test. Pitting nucleated mainly in the ferrite phase for the solution-annealed specimen, while the initiation of pitting corrosion for the aged specimen took place at Cr-depletion area around the precipitates, i.e. in the newly formed secondary austenite phase.