Quasi-In Situ Localized Corrosion of an Additively Manufactured FeCo Alloy in 5 Wt Pct NaCl Solution

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>FeCo alloys are important materials used in pumps and motors in the offshore oil and gas drilling industry. These alloys are subjected to marine environments with a high NaCl concentration, therefore, corrosion and catastrophic failure are anticipated. So, the surface dissolution of additively manufactured FeCo samples is investigated in a quasi-<jats:italic>in situ</jats:italic> manner, in particular, the pitting corrosion in 5.0 wt pct NaCl solution. The local dissolution of the same sample region is monitored after 24, 72, and 168 hours. Here, the formation of rectangular and circular pits of ultra-fine dimensions (less than 0.5 <jats:italic>µ</jats:italic>m) is observed with increasing immersion time. In addition, the formation of a corrosion-inhibiting surface layer is detected on the sample surface. Surface dissolution leads to a change in the surface structure, however, no change in grain shape or grain size is noticed. The surface topography after local dissolution is correlated to the grain orientation. Quasi-<jats:italic>in situ</jats:italic> analysis shows the preferential dissolution of high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) leading to a change in the fraction of HAGBs and low-angle grain boundaries fraction (LAGBs). For the FeCo sample, a potentiodynamic polarisation test reveals a corrosion potential (E<jats:sub>corr</jats:sub>) of − 0.475 V referred to the standard hydrogen electrode (SHE) and a corrosion exchange current density (i<jats:sub>corr</jats:sub>) of 0.0848 A/m<jats:sup>2</jats:sup>. Furthermore, quasi-<jats:italic>in situ</jats:italic> experiments showed that grains oriented along certain crystallographic directions are corroding more compared to other grains leading to a significant decrease in the local surface height. Grains with a plane normal close to the <jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math>$$\langle {1}00\rangle$$</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⟨</mml:mo> <mml:mn>100</mml:mn> <mml:mo>⟩</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula> direction reveal lower surface dissolution and higher corrosion resistance, whereas planes normal close to the <jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math>$$\langle {11}0\rangle$$</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⟨</mml:mo> <mml:mn>110</mml:mn> <mml:mo>⟩</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula> direction and the <jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math>$$\langle {111}\rangle$$</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⟨</mml:mo> <mml:mn>111</mml:mn> <mml:mo>⟩</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula> direction exhibit a higher surface dissolution.</jats:p>