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The failure of the protective oxide scales of AISI 304 and AISI 316 stainless steels has been studied and compared at 1,000°C in synthetic air. First, the isothermal thermogravimetric curves of both stainless steels were plotted to determine the time needed to reach the breakdown point. The different resistance of each stainless steel was interpreted on the basis of the nature of the crystalline phases formed, the morphology, and the surface structure as well as the cross-section structure of the oxidation products. The weight gain of AISI 304 stainless steel was about 8 times greater than that of AISI 316 stainless steel, and AISI 316 stainless steel reached the breakdown point about 40 times more slowly than AISI 304 stainless steel. In both stainless steels, reaching the breakdown point meant the loss of the protective oxide scale of Cr2O3, but whereas in AISI 304 stainless steel the Cr2O3scale totally disappeared and exclusively Fe2O3was formed, in AISI 316 stainless steel some Cr2O3persisted and Fe3O4was mainly formed, which means that AISI 316 stainless steel is more resistant to oxidation after the breakdown.

The influence of micrometric alumina (low surface area-to-volume ratio) and nanometric alumina (high surface area-to-volume ratio) on microstructure, hardness and abrasive wear of a NiCrBSi hardfacing alloy coating applied to an AISI 304 substrate using flame spraying (FS) combined with surface flame melting (SFM) is studied. Remelting after spraying improved the mechanical and tribological properties of the coatings. Microstructural characterization using XRD, SEM and EDS indicated that alumina additions produced similar phases (NiSi, Ni 3 B, CrC and Ni 31 Si 12) regardless of the alumina size, but the phases differed in morphology, size distribution and relative proportions from one coating to another. The addition of 12 wt.% nanometric Al 2 O 3 increased the phases concentration more than five-to sixfold and reduced the hard phases size about four-to threefold compared with NiCrBSi + 12 wt.% micrometric Al 2 O 3. Nanoalumina led to reduced mass loss during abrasive wear compared to micrometric alumina and greater improvement in hardness.

A microcrystalline Ni-22Cr-10Al-1Y (wt.%) coating was deposited on AISI 304 stainless steel by the oxyfuel thermal spray technique. The deposited coating was subjected to heat treatment to improve the microstructure characteristics and its corresponding high-temperature properties. The isothermal high-temperature corrosion behavior at 650 and 700°C in synthetic air and in the presence of 1% Cl 2 was investigated using thermogravimetric analysis, x-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. The results indicated that the deposited NiCrAlY coating possessed acceptable oxidation-corrosion resistance at 650°C owing to the formation of extensive amounts of the protective oxide of Cr 2 O 3 ; NiO and a lesser amount of a Cr 1.12 Ni 2,88 metallic phase are also formed. At 700°C, the coating lost its protective characteristic because of the excessive consumption of thermodynamically stable phases by oxidation-chlorination process. In this case, the steel base and the coating were attacked by chlorine during the exposure time; the mass gain of the NiCrAlY coating was slightly higher and provided only a limited protection up to 11 h; thereafter, breakdown of the layer of oxides occurred and this is attributed to the formation of non-protective oxides mainly b-Fe 2 O 3 and Fe 21.33 O 32 and the depletion of chromium.

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