Crystallographic Orientation Dependence of Corrosion Behavior of a Single Crystal Nickel-Based Alloy

Crystallographic orientation dependence of corrosion behavior of a nickel-based single crystal alloy IN738 was studied. Potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy show that corrosion performance of the single crystal alloy varies with crystallographic orientation. The dependence of passivation behavior on crystallographic orientation is influenced by environmental concentration. Potentiostatic polarization, scanning probe microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were performed to understand the variation in passivation of different crystallographic orientations. The crystallographic orientation dependence of corrosion performance of the alloy can be explained by the difference of passive films in terms of chemical compositions, compactness, and porosity properties, as well as surface roughness.