Research Article

Corrosion behavior of 000Cr25Ni20 and 304L stainless steels in boiling nitric acid solutions containing Ce⁴⁺ ions

¹ Key Laboratory of Nuclear Materials and Safety Assessment, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 62 Wencui Road, Shenyang, 110016, PR China
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, PR China

^* e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Aili Ma); This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Yugui Zheng)

Received: 10 June 2025
Accepted: 24 October 2025

Abstract

This study investigated the corrosion behavior of 000Cr25Ni20 (C25) and 304L stainless steels (SS) in boiling nitric acid solution containing Ce⁴⁺ ions. Open circuit potential, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, potentiodynamic polarization, weight loss measurement, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy were employed to elucidate the effects of Ce⁴⁺ ions and nitric acid concentration on the corrosion behavior of C25 and 304L SS. The results demonstrated that Ce⁴⁺ ions significantly accelerated the cathodic reaction, thereby markedly increasing the corrosion rates of both C25 and 304L SS. Both the cathodic reaction rate and the overall corrosion rate increased monotonically with increasing Ce⁴⁺ concentration. However, in the presence of Ce⁴⁺ ions, the effect of nitric acid concentration (3, 6, and 10 mol/L) on E_corr, I_corr, and R_p for both SS was negligible, indicating that the influence of nitric acid concentration was less significant compared to that of Ce⁴⁺ ions. The highest corrosion rates were observed during the initial 48-hour exposure cycle, followed by a decrease and stabilization in the subsequent four cycles. C25 exhibited superior corrosion resistance compared to 304L SS, suggesting its potential application in fabricating reprocessing equipment requiring higher corrosion resistance than 304L SS. These findings provide critical insights into operational monitoring and material selection for nuclear fuel reprocessing equipment.