Effect of Molten Binary Salt on Inconel 600 and Hastelloy C-276 Superalloys for Thermal Energy Storage Systems: A Corrosion Study

• Published in: Journal of materials engineering and performance Vol. 33; no. 17; pp. 9070 - 9083
• Main Authors: Prem Kumar, M., Arivazhagan, N., Chiranjeevi, C., Raja Sekhar, Y., Babu, N., Manikandan, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2024
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Corrosion and Coatings; Engineering Design; Materials Science; Original Research Article; Quality Control; Reliability; Safety and Risk; Tribology; diatomite; Na; SO; energy storage; hastelloy C-276; inconel 600
• ISSN: 1059-9495; 1544-1024
• DOI: 10.1007/s11665-023-08641-7

The usage of molten salt in concentrated solar power plants leads to corrosion in energy storage container materials. However, the effect of temperature, duration and environmental conditions plays a major role in the hot corrosion mechanism of the components. The present research investigates the corrosion behavior of Inconel 600 (IN 600) and Hastelloy C-276 (HC-276) in a 55 wt.% Na 2 SO 4  + 45 wt.% Diatomite molten salt environment. Hot corrosion studies were performed by immersion at 40, 80 and 120 h exposures. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis examined the oxide phases and morphology formed on the corroded material. The mass loss observed at a maximum duration of 120 h is 0.002 g/cm 2 for Inconel 600 and 0.8965 g/cm 2 for Hastelloy C-276. The Inconel 600 shows less weight loss compared to Hastelloy C-276 due to the formation of a protective oxide layer of NiCr 2 O 4 . The materials exposed to molten salt show different surface morphology during the tested durations.