Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Bio- and Tribo-Corrosion (2019) 5:78 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40735-019-0270-4 Erosion–Corrosion Efect on the Alloy 316L in Polluted Phosphoric Acid S. Skal 1  · Y. Kerroum 1  · A. Guenbour 1  · A. Bellaouchou 1  · R. Boulif 2  · H. Idrissi 3  · J. García‑Antón 4  · A. Zarrouk 1 Received: 8 March 2019 / Revised: 6 July 2019 / Accepted: 10 July 2019 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 Abstract The physical factors such as the abrasive particles (AP) cause a mechanical rupture of the passive flm in the polluted phos- phoric acid. In this sense, the electrochemical methods and mass loss measurement were used to study the efect of these abrasive particles. X-ray difraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy analysis (SEM/ EDX) and UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy methods were employed to analyze the material surface. The experimental results of X-ray difraction showed that the AP afect the formation of passive flm by decreasing the intensity of ferritic phases after 6 h of immersion. The measurements of polarization reveal that the erosion–corrosion accentuates the anodic dissolution of the material, which is manifested by an increase of the activation and passivity of current densities. The EIS exhibited a decrease in the polarization resistance of material caused by the reduction of the flm thickness. The interpretation of the UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy showed that the mechanical efect diminishes the passive flm formation. In addition, the pas- sive current density increases under the abrasion–corrosion condition which was approved by Mott–Schottky analysis. It is manifested by the formation of a porous outer layer and decrease in the properties of the inner layer, which was observed by UV–Vis–NIR and Mott–Schottky analysis, respectively. Keywords Erosion–corrosion · Passivity · Mott–Schottky · UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy · SEM/EDX · DRX 1 Introduction The erosion–corrosion of stainless steels is a complex phe- nomenon. It depends on the nature of the material–environ- ment interface, the microstructural response of the mate- rial, and the physicochemical properties of the passivity flm (structure, composition, hardness) [1]. Thus, the geometrics, the hardness the angle of impact, and the fow velocity of the abrasive particles are also signifcant in erosion–corrosion of stainless steels [1–4]. Therefore, the erosion–corrosion problem of stainless steels must be discussed as a process which consists essentially of a synergy between the aggres- sive media and solid particle-passivity flm. The behavior of these alloys will depend mainly on the physicochemical nature of the passive layers and the ability of these materi- als to repassivity by addition of some elements as nickel, chromium, or molybdenum which further improves their performance [5–7]. This phenomenon has attracted the attention of many researchers which are investigated by the relation to diferent conditions of wear such as abrasion–corrosion, erosion–cor- rosion, impact–abrasion–corrosion, and adhesion [8–11]. The systematic study of the abrasion was carried by Guenbour et al. [12, 13]. They showed that abrasion active anodic dissolution of the alloy promotes the pitting in phos- phoric acid polluted by the ions Cl − and changes the thick- ness of the passive layers. In addition, the efect of mechan- ical on the behavior of alloy Nickel was studied by Skal et al. [6], where they found that the Alloy 59 detained in the passivity range under the conditions of abrasion–corrosion. Therefore, the material is resistant to abrasion phenomenon. Another study by Guanghong [13] used the mass loss technique in order to study the efect of corrosion–ero- sion on the behavior of various austenitic stainless steels * A. Zarrouk azarrouk@gmail.com 1 Laboratory of Materials, Nanotechnology and Environment, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University, Av. Ibn Battouta, P.O. Box 1014, Agdal-Rabat, Morocco 2 R D, Pôle Chimie, Groupe OCP, Jorf Lasfar, Morocco 3 Laboratoire des Matériaux Sciences et Ingénierie MATEIS, INSA Lyon, Lyon, France 4 Ingeniería Electroquímica y Corrosión (IEC), Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Nuclear, ETSI, Industriales, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain