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Acta Metall Sin  2025, Vol. 61 Issue (11): 1715-1726    DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2025.00062
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Effect of Solution Treatment on Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance of Cr-Ni-Co-Mo Maraging Stainless Steel
YANG Jiawei1, ZHOU Dekai1, ZHAO Liyuan1, WANG Tianyu1, LI Xiaolin1(), YANG Hongbo2, WANG Haifeng1()
1 State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
2 School of Metallurgical Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China
Cite this article: 

YANG Jiawei, ZHOU Dekai, ZHAO Liyuan, WANG Tianyu, LI Xiaolin, YANG Hongbo, WANG Haifeng. Effect of Solution Treatment on Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance of Cr-Ni-Co-Mo Maraging Stainless Steel. Acta Metall Sin, 2025, 61(11): 1715-1726.

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Abstract  

Maraging stainless steel has extensive applications in aerospace, marine, and other demanding fields because of its high strength. However, its susceptibility to pitting corrosion in Cl--containing environments considerably limits its practical applications under corrosive conditions. This study investigates the effects of three solution treatments—high temperature solution (HS), low temperature solution (LS), and cyclic low temperature solution (CLS)—on grain size and reversed austenite formation in Cr-Ni-Co-Mo maraging stainless steel. Furthermore, it explores the relationship between its microstructure and corrosion resistance in a 3.5%NaCl (mass fraction) solution. The results revealed that the LS treatment refines the martensite block size from 2.1 μm to 943 nm and increases the reversed austenite content from 1.9% to 7.8% compared with the HS treatment. The CLS treatment introduces a high density of dislocations and retained austenite, which provide favorable nucleation sites and diffusion pathways for elemental redistribution during aging, thereby leading to a substantial increase in reversed austenite content to 33%. Cyclic infiltration corrosion tests and electrochemical measurements confirm that grain refinement and the enhanced reversed austenite content considerably improve the corrosion resistance. Grain refinement increases the density of grain boundaries, facilitates the formation of a passivation film on the surface and reduces susceptibility to intergranular corrosion. Compared with LS-treated steel, CLS-treated steel exhibits a 109 mVSCE increase in corrosion potential, an 86.25 μA/cm2 decrease in corrosion current density, and a 26.82 mVSCE increase in pitting potential. As the reversed austenite content increases, the total resistance of solution and the passivation film thickness increase, thereby improving the stability and protective performance of the passivation film. Concurrently, pitting charge transfer resistance increases, which improves resistance to pitting corrosion.

Key words:  maraging stainless steel      grain refinement      reversed austenite      corrosion resistance mechanism     
Received:  04 March 2025     
ZTFLH:  TG142.24  
Fund: National Key Research and Development Program of China(2022YFB3705300);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52374403);National Natural Science Foundation of China(U23A20613);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52004224);Research Found of the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing(2021-TS-10);Graduate Innovation Ability Cultivation Fund of Northwestern Polytechnical University(PF2025040);Research Fund of the Analytical & Testing Center(2023-T-009)

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2025.00062     OR     https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2025/V61/I11/1715

Fig.1  Equilibrium phase diagram (a), thermal expansion curves (b), and schematics of high/low temperature (c) and cyclic (d) heat treatment processes of maraging stainless steel (Ac1—austenitizing start temperature, Ac3—austenitizing completion temperature, Ms—martensite transformation start temperature, WQ—water quenching, AC—air cooling)
Fig.2  SEM images of HS (a) and LS (b) samples and corresponding XRD spectra (c) (HS—high temperature solution + aging, LS—low temperature solution + aging, PAGB—prior austenite grain boundary, PB—packet boundary, BB—block boundary, dblock—block size of martensite lath)
Fig.3  TEM analyses of HS (a, b) and LS (c-g) samples and Cr-Ni-Co-Mo maraging stainless steel[25] (h, i)
(a, c) bright field (BF) TEM images and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns (insets) (b, d) details of dislocation distributions (e-g) high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) image (e) and corresponding EDS elemental maps (f, g) (h, i) BF image (h) and corresponding EDS elemental map (i) of precipitates[25]
Fig.4  Phase maps (a1, b1), inverse pole figures (IPFs) (a2, b2), and grain boundary maps (a3, b3) of LS (a1-a3) and CLS (b1-b3) samples (CLA—cyclic solution + aging, LAGB—low angle grain boundary, HAGB—high angle grain boundary)
Fig.5  Kernel average misorientation (KAM) maps of LST (a) and CLST (b) samples and corresponding distributions (c) (LST and CLST samples represent samples with low temperature and cyclic solution treatment, respectively)
Fig.6  XRD spectra (a) and phase maps of LST (b) and CLST (c) samples (Red and yellow areas represent martensites and austenites, respectively)
Fig.7  Corrosion rates of HS, LS, and CLS samples in 3.5%NaCl solution (mass fraction) with different cycles
Fig.8  Low and high (insets) magnified SEM images (a, c) and EDS elemental mappings (b1-b7, d1-d7) of HS (a, b1-b7) and LS (c, d1-d7) samples after 284 cyc in 3.5%NaCl solution (Arrow in Fig.8c inset represents pit caused by inclusion)
Fig.9  SEM image (a) and corresponding EDS elemental mappings (b1-b6) of CLS sample after 284 cyc in 3.5%NaCl solution
Fig.10  Electrochemical polarization curves (a), Nyquist plots (b), and Bode plots (c, d) of LS and CLS samples in 3.5%NaCl solution (Z′ and Z′′—real part and imaginary part of alternating current (AC) impedance Z, respectively, |Z|—magnitude of AC impedance Z, icorr—self corrosion current)
(c) |Z|-frequency plot (d) phase angle-frequency plot
SampleEcorr / mVSCEicorr / (μA·cm-2)Epit / mVSCE
LS-253141.20-23.70
CLS-14454.953.12
Table 1  Polarization curve characteristic parameters of LS and CLS samples in 3.5%NaCl solution
Fig.11  Equivalent circuit map of maraging stainless steel (Rpass—passivation charge transfer resistance, Rel—local corrosion region resistance, Rpit—pitting charge transfer resistance, Rs—solution resistance, CPEpass—passivation constant phase element, CPEpit—pitting constant phase element)

Sample

Rpass

Ω·cm2

Rel

Ω·cm2

Rpit

Ω·cm2

CPEpassCPEpit

Y0-pass

μF·cm-2

bp

Y0-pass

μF·cm-2

bp
LS6.710.0112650029.30.9117.10.655
CLS15.603.3448540015.80.9092.90.571
Table 2  Electrochemical impedance characteristic parameters of different samples fitted by equivalent circuit
Fig.12  Total resistances (Rtotal) and passivation film thicknesses (δ) of LS and CLS samples
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