Corrosion of steels by liquid alkali metals involves the transfer of non metals, such as C, N or 0, from solution in the alkali metal to the surface of the steel. Surface corrosion products may then be formed. With oxygen in sodium these products may be ternary oxides, with nitrogen in lithium the ternary nitride Li9CrNS is formed and with carbon binary carbides are formed in both alkalies. Along with the surface corrosion products, element depletions and carbon or nitrogen diffusion profiles are created. The analyses of thin corrosion product layers and the determination of the concentration profiles of carbon and nitrogen are important requirements for the understanding of the corrosion process. Lithium penetration into steel is also a major problem in lithium corrosion. Lithium is extremely difficult to determine by conventional analytical methods, due to its low atomic number. In this paper the use of glow discharge optical spectroscopy (GDOS) and SIMS for the study of surface corrosion products, is described, together with a quantitative determination of the carbon-depth profile in type 316 steel exposed to liquid sodium.
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