Wear and tribocorrosion behaviour of 304L SS, Zr-702, Zircaloy-4 and Ti-grade2

• Wear resistance is high for 304L SS than Zircaloy-4, Zr-702 and Ti-grade2.
• Ti-grade2 showed transpassive behavior under tribocorrosion condition in 1 M HNO3.
• 304L SS had higher wear resistance in nitric acid medium than Zr and Ti materials.

Passive materials like 304L stainless steel (SS), Zirconium-702, Zircaloy-4 and Titanium-grade2 exhibit an active–passive behavior in an aqueous environment. Corrosion and wear interactions are of great importance since the growth of a passive film provides protection against corrosion, while wear may destroy the protective passive film. Wear tests were carried out on a linear reciprocatory and pin on disc systems. Tribocorrosion experiments were performed using a pin on disc stand in 1 M HNO3. The results revealed that the wear rate was low for 304L SS when compared to Zircaloy-4, Zr-702 and Ti-grade2. The lowering in open circuit potential (OCP) resulted during tribocorrosion test was a mixed potential which indicates the surface state of unworn and worn surfaces. Potentiodynamic polarization and potentiostatic sliding results revealed that the anodic current was higher with sliding than the anodic current measured without sliding. This was due to more dissolution of the metal in the anodic potential range under sliding conditions. The current increase could then be attributed to the wear accelerated metal corrosion. The wear tracks were analysed using SEM and surface profilometer. The synergy between wear and corrosion was found in the above passive materials.