Plasma Electrolytic Polishing-An Ecological Way for Increased Corrosion Resistance in Austenitic Stainless Steels

Viera Zatkalíková; Štefan Podhorský; Milan Štrbák; Tatiana Liptáková; Lenka Markovičová; Lenka Kuchariková

doi:10.3390/ma15124223

Plasma Electrolytic Polishing-An Ecological Way for Increased Corrosion Resistance in Austenitic Stainless Steels

Materials (Basel). 2022 Jun 14;15(12):4223. doi: 10.3390/ma15124223.

Authors

Viera Zatkalíková¹, Štefan Podhorský², Milan Štrbák^{1

3}, Tatiana Liptáková¹, Lenka Markovičová¹, Lenka Kuchariková¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 8215/1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia.
² Institute of Production Technologies, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Jána Bottu č. 2781/25, 917 24 Trnava, Slovakia.
³ Research Centre UNIZA, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 8215/1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia.

Abstract

Plasma electrolytic polishing (PEP) is an environment-friendly alternative to the conventional electrochemical polishing (EP), giving optimal surface properties and improved corrosion resistance with minimum energy and time consumption, which leads to both economic and environmental benefits. This paper is focused on the corrosion behavior of PEP treated AISI 316L stainless steel widely used as a biomaterial. Corrosion resistance of plasma electrolytic polished surfaces without/with chemical pretreatment (acid cleaning) is evaluated and compared with original non-treated (as received) surfaces by three independent test methods: electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization (PP), and exposure immersion test. All corrosion tests are carried out in the 0.9 wt.% NaCl solution at a temperature of 37 ± 0.5 °C to simulate the internal environment of a human body. The quality of tested surfaces is also characterized by optical microscopy and by the surface roughness parameters. The results obtained indicated high corrosion resistance of PEP treated surfaces also without chemical pretreatment, which increases the ecological benefits of PEP technology.

Keywords: austenitic stainless steel; corrosion resistance; electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; plasma electrolytic polishing; potentiodynamic polarization.

Grants and funding

The research was partially funded by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences grant VEGA No. 1/0134/20 and by a Project to support young researchers at UNIZA, ID of project 12715—project leader Ing. Lenka Kuchariková.