Correlation between repassivation kinetics and pitting potential of 316L stainless steel in the presence of green inhibitors

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the stability of passive oxide film formed on the surface of 316L stainless steel in 3.5 Wt.% NaCl in the presence of two environmentally non-toxic inhibitors, i.e. leaf extracts of Musa spp. (MS) and Jatropha curcas (JC). Design/methodology/approach: Current transients and potentiodynamic polarization curves were used to explain the stability of the passive film on Current transients and potentiodynamic polarization curves were used to explain the stability of the passive film on 316L stainless steel at both ambient temperature (25 °C) and 70 °C. For the potentiostatic tests, the coupons underwent cathodic stripping to remove the native oxide on their surfaces at −850 mV for 600 s, and a potential of 50 mV was imposed to observe the repassivation for 200 s. For the potentiodynamic tests, the pitting potential measured at 100 μA/cm2, corrosion potential and cathodic current density were obtained for analysis. Findings: The current transients perfectly fitted into the exponential decay curve; i = i_s + i_peak exp(−t/τ), where the decay constant, τ measures the repassivating speed and extent to which the newly formed film heals and stabilizes. The current transients showed that MS and JC help in the repassivating process, especially at 300 ppm and 200 ppm, respectively, both at the lower temperature. The potentiodynamic curves mostly correlated with the current transients except for the hybrid inhibitor. The inhibitors increased the pitting potentials at concentrations that are correlated to their scanning electron micrograph images. Research limitations/implications: Because they are cheap and environmentally friendly, plant extracts that are proven corrosion inhibitors could be used to aid the formation of passive film on passive alloys in not-so-aggressive environments. Practical implications: Both MS and JC improve the film stability mostly at intermediate concentrations of 200 and 300 ppm, respectively, at ambient temperature and 70° C. Social implications: Using leaf extracts of plants as green inhibitors is considered an environmentally friendly engineering solution. Originality/value: The leaf extracts are a convenient resource of green inhibitors because their plants are readily available or could be easily naturalized, the processing technique to obtain the extracts is very cheap and the inhibitors are environmentally friendly. In addition, cathodic stripping exposes a relatively larger surface area than that obtained using the most common forms of depassivation; hence, the efficiency of the inhibitor in aiding the formation of the new oxide film to cover the bare surface would be better measured. There is very lean research data on the combined use of green inhibitors and cathodic stripping to study repassivating kinetics of passive alloys.