Book Description

The physicochemical forms and partitioning of corrosion products released from stainless steel upon exposure to selected environmental conditions is the subject of this investigation. This report describes the influence of calcareous sediment on the rate of release and fate of corrosion products produced when neutron-activated stainless steel specimens were exposed to a Globigerina ooze taken from the Northeast Pacific Ocean. The calcareous ooze used in this study consists largely of planktonic formanifera tests and was found to be about 90% CaCO3. The trace metal content of this sediment was typical of average deep-sea carbonate sediments, and the ratios of trace elements to Ti were not remarkably different from a coastal clayey silt or a Northeast Pacific pelagic red clay. Most (>80%) of the trace metals extracted by sequential chemical treatment were associated with reductant-soluble materials, i.e., amorphous Mn and Fe oxides, or were incorporated in the carbonate substrate. Specimens of neutron-activated stainless steel exposed to calcareous ooze suspended in seawater under aerated and non-oxygenated conditions released corrosion products at rates of 1.7 and 4.2 .mu.g year−1 cm−2, respectively. Almost 90% of the corrosion products (6°Co activity) released under aerated conditions were relatively labile. Of these materials, over 80% were soluble upon treatment with a strong complexing agent, DTPA, indicating that adsorption of corrosion products as cations had been the major mechanism of incorporation into the sediment. In the absence of O2, a large fraction (approx. 80%) of the corrosion products were also relatively labile. Larger fractions of the corrosion products were soluble, easily dissolved, or present as carbonates or sulfides under non-oxygenated conditions than they were for the aerated treatment.