Effect of Boronizing on the Corrosion Resistance of Martensitic Stainless Steels

Corrosion behavior of 13Cr-4Ni and 16Cr-5Ni martensitic stainless steels subjected to boronizing is studied. The study utilized EIS and cyclic polarization experiments to investigate the uniform and localized corrosion of bare and boronized specimen surfaces in 0.6 M NaCl solution. The boronized specimens exhibited lower corrosion resistance when compared to their bare counterparts. This is attributed to compositional heterogeneity resulting from the formation of borides, and the sensitization of boronized layer that produced intergranular corrosion through the micro-galvanic effect.