Effect of Low Concentration Nitrite on Corrosion of A106B Carbon Steel

In order to test and verify whether the significantly increased iron concentration in a plant closed cooling water system was caused by the low concentration contamination of nitrite ion, the effect of nitrite on corrosion rate of A106B carbon steel was investigated by static weight loss, dynamic weight loss and electrochemical measurements. The results show that the corrosion rate of A106B steel was increased from 0.66 μm·a-1 to 0.99 μm·a-1 in the deaerated LiOH solution with pH value of 10.0 at a dosage of 3 mg·kg-1 NaNO2, however, the corrosion rate significantly increased to 73 μm·a-1 in the case of air inleakage because of the carbonation. As compared with the effect of dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide, the effect of low concentration nitrite on the corrosion of carbon steel could be ignored.