ISSN 2360-7955
Accepted 22nd August
Abstract
The corrosion behavior of mild steel and stainless steel in five different concentrations of Nitric acid (HNO), Hydrochloric acid (HCl), Hydrogen tetraoxosulphate VI acid (H2SO4), Acetic acid (CH3COOH), Hydrogen tetraoxophosphate V acid (H2PO4) has been studied. Specimen were exposed in the acidic media for seven days (168hours) and corrosion rates evaluated, using the weight loss method. It was observed that nitric acid environment was most corrosive because of its oxidizing nature, followed by hydrogen tetraoxosulphate VI acid, Hydrochloric acid, hydrogen tetraoxophosphate V acid and lastly acetic acid for the mild steel. While for the stainless steel, it was observed that hydrochloric acid was most corrosive, followed by hydrogen tetraoxosulphate VI acid. Also, the stainless steel was immune to Nitric acid, phosphoric acid and Acetic acid solutions. The rate of metal dissolution increased with increasing concentration of the corrosion media and the exposure time. Corrosion rates of mild steel in all the acidic media studied were found to be higher than that of the stainless steel.
Keywords: Corrosion, Carbon steel, Alloy Steel, Acidic Media