Abstract
To quote from the 1949 book “Stainless steels: an elementary text for consumers” by Carl Andrew Zapffe (1912–1994) “‘Stainless steel’ is not an alloy - it is the name inherited by a great group of alloys, a special classification of special steels, and a field of study in itself.” The key difference between stainless steels and other steels is that the former has a few nanometer layer of chromium oxide on the surface while the later form iron oxides. The chromium oxide is adherent and protective against further oxidation and corrosion by many chemicals, but not against chloride attack, whereas iron oxide, which we call rust, is not protective. At least 11% chromium is needed to confer corrosion resistance and produce a stainless steel. The corrosion resistance is enhanced by the addition of some other alloying elements, such as nickel and molybdenum.
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Baker, I. (2018). Stainless Steel. In: Fifty Materials That Make the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78766-4_42
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78766-4_42
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