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Study on the corrosion behavior of 316H stainless steel in molten NaCl–KCl–MgCl2 salts with and without purification

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Abstract

The corrosion behavior of 316H stainless steel (SS) in the impure and purified NaCl–KCl–MgCl2 salt was investigated at 700 °C. Results indicate that the main deleterious impurity induced corrosion in the impure salt was the absorbed moisture, present in the form of MgCl2·6H2O. 316H SS occurred severe intergranular corrosion with a corrosion depth of 130 μm for 1000 h in the impure NaCl–KCl–MgCl2 salt. In contrast, the purification treatment of molten chloride salt by the dissolved Mg metal can remove the absorbed moisture, and the corresponding reactions were also discussed. As a result, the corrosiveness of NaCl–KCl–MgCl2 salt is reduced significantly. 316H SS occurred slight uniform corrosion with a depth of less than 5 μm for 3000 h in the purified NaCl–KCl–MgCl2 salt.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Science Data Bank at https://www.doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.j00186.00331 and https://cstr.cn/31253.11.sciencedb.j00186.00331.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China

    Hua Ai, Xin-Mei Yang, Hua-Jian Liu, Bing-Chuan Chen, Ling Han, Hua Sun, Yan-Jun Chen, Yuan Qian & Jian-Qiang Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Interfacial Physics and Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, 201800, China

    Hua Ai, Xin-Mei Yang, Hua-Jian Liu, Bing-Chuan Chen, Ling Han, Hua Sun, Yan-Jun Chen, Yuan Qian & Jian-Qiang Wang

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Ling Han & Yan-Jun Chen

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  1. Hua Ai
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Hua Ai, Xin-Mei Yang, and Yan-Jun Chen. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Hua Ai, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hua Ai, Xin-Mei Yang or Yan-Jun Chen.

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Additional information

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 22ZR1474600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 12175302), the “Thorium Molten Salt Reactor Nuclear Energy System” Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA 02040000) and the “Transformational Technologies for Clean Energy and Demonstration,” Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA 21000000).

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Ai, H., Yang, XM., Liu, HJ. et al. Study on the corrosion behavior of 316H stainless steel in molten NaCl–KCl–MgCl2 salts with and without purification. NUCL SCI TECH 34, 191 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-023-01352-7

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