Dual Role of Chlorine Dioxide in Pitting Corrosion of Stainless Steels, 2000 Engineering Conference Proceedings
Tero J. Hakkarainen--It is demonstrated that chlorine dioxide has a dual role in pitting of stainless steels. On one hand, chlorine dioxide is a powerful oxidizer, able to provide the driving force for rapid pit growth in environments containing chloride ions. On the other hand, however, a disproportionation of chlorine dioxide into chlorate and chloride ions will produce an increasing amount of ions able to inhibit pitting. While an increasing amount of chloride ions increases the susceptibility to pitting, the chlorate ions seem to have an opposite effect. In the disproportionation reactions of chlorine dioxide, chlorate ions and chloride ions are formed in the ratio 5:1. Thus, the relative amount of the inhibiting ions grows much faster than the amount of ions promoting pitting.
Dual Role of Chlorine Dioxide in Pitting Corrosion of Stainless Steels, 2000 Engineering Conference