Identification of corrosion products resulting from accelerated oxidation process

Scanning electron microscopy analysis, X-ray powder diffraction and room temperature⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy were used to identify the corrosion products of uncoated and coated low alloy steels (LAS) and low carbon steels (LCS) resulting from an accelerated steam oxidation test for 180 h at 660°C. From the Mössbauer spectral analysis, it was shown that in all cases, a series of iron compounds such as α-Fe₂O₃, Fe₃O₄, γ-Fe₂O₃, δ-FeOOH, α-FeOOH, Fe(OH)₂ and Fe(OH)₃ were formed, while XRD measurements revealed only the α-Fe₂O₃ and/or Fe₃O₄/γ-Fe₂O₃ phases. In the LAS uncoated sample, an amorphous phase with magnetic features is found. In the spectra of the borided samples and of the uncoated LCS, an additional doublet was observed, which reveals the presence of a superparamagnetic phase. From the relative areas of the subspectra, it is concluded that the boron aluminised sample underwent the lowest degradation. The mechanism proposed for corrosion products formation is based on the dissociation process.