Investigation of electrochemical corrosion behavior in a 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution of boronized dual-phase steel

In this study, corrosion behaviors of boronized and non-boronized dual-phase steel were investigated with Tafel extrapolation and linear polarization methods in a 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution. Microstructure analyses show that the boride layer on the dual-phase steel surface had a flat and saw smooth morphology. It was detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis that the boride layer contained FeB and Fe2B phases. The amount of martensite increases with an increase in the intercritical annealing temperature. Both the amount of martensite and the morphology of the phase constituents have an influence on the corrosion behavior of dual-phase steel. A higher corrosion tendency was observed with an increased amount of martensite. The corrosion resistance of boronized dual-phase steel is higher compared with that of dual-phase steel.

► Corrosion behaviors in a 3.5% NaCl solution of boronized Dual-Phase (DP) steels were examined.
► The martensite ratio increased with an increase in the intercritical annealing temperature.
► The corrosion resistance decreased with increase of the martensite ratio.
► The boride layer increased the corrosion resistance of DP steel 2–3-fold.
► The superior properties of DP steel as well as poor corrosion properties were improved by the boriding process.