Avaliação da corrosão no aço AISI 4140 nitrocarbonetado e pós-oxidado a plasma em etanol hidratado combustível

Abstract

Environmental and energy sustainability issues have promoted the search for biofuels produced from renewable sources, such as ethanol obtained from sugarcane processing. However, this new generation of biofuels can cause negative effects in contact with several metal surfaces. In particular, fuel-grade ethanol (FGE) can contain impurities such as water, acetic acid and chloride ions that increase the corrosivity, especially with regard to carbon steels. Despite the importance of biofuels in the worldwide energy matrix and the several applications of the plasma-assisted diffusion technologies in autoparts, no investigation was performed concerning the corrosion behavior of steels with surfaces modified by plasma when exposed to ethanol environment. Thus, in this work, the low carbon steel AISI 4140 was nitrocarburized and post-oxidized by plasma with variable times in the oxidation treatment. The identification of the surface crystalline phases was performed by the X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) and the morphological and microstructural analyses were performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Nanoindentation tests were performed aiming to evaluate surface nanohardness. In order to study the behavior against corrosion of surfaces modified, the samples were kept immersed in FGE according to the Brazilian Standart NBR 8265/1983 and in duplicate. During several weeks the total weight was registered and the surface morphology changes were monitored by SEM and optical microscopy (OM). The main corrosion mechanism consists in pitting formation. The pitting density and average size in the steel surfaces treated by post-oxidation and immersed in FGE were followed and quantified. This analysis tool allows determining that the best treatment time is 90 minutes. However, the nitrocarburized samples presented enough corrosion resistance when compared to the post-oxidized samples. Finally, corrosion resistance depends more strongly on morphology and microstructure of the oxide layer than in its thickness.