Nucleation and growth of oxide on pure Fe surface in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE): experiments and computer simulations

T Zhou and X Gao and HL Chang and ZW Ma and MH Cui and JL Chai and P Jin and LL Pang and TL Shen and ZG Wang, SURFACES AND INTERFACES, 72, 107012 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.surfin.2025.107012

A series of minutes level short time oxygen controlled LBE corrosion experiments, Fe-Pb-Bi-O machine learning potential adopted molecular dynamics simulations and ab initio calculations have been performed to explore the initial corrosion behaviors of bcc Fe surfaces exposed to liquid LBE. It shows that the initial oxidation process is demonstrated to starts with oxygen adsorption followed by nucleation and growth of oxide films, and this process is obviously inhibited by dissolution at either higher temperatures or lower oxygen content environments. The surface morphologies for the case at corrosion temperature of 550 degrees C are quite different compared with those of 350 degrees C and 450 degrees C. The surface morphologies for the case at corrosion temperature of 550 degrees C are quite different compared with those of 350 degrees C and 450 degrees C. The oxides in the case of 550 degrees C are more disordered and irregular. At 450 degrees C, the overall morphology of the corrosion oxide layer showed no significant changes within 20 min at oxygen concentrations of 10- 6wt % and 10-5wt %. However, the total lead-bismuth content within the oxide layer was higher than that observed at the saturated oxygen concentration of 10- 4wt %. Simultaneously, the oxygen content within the oxide layer exhibited an opposite trend to the lead-bismuth content. Furthermore, both Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 are found on the corroded Fe surface even at low oxygen content.

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