ABSTRACT The wear‐corrosion behavior of 321 stainless steel (SS) and pure Ti in 3.5 M nitric acid solution was investigated. Results showed that although 321 SS occupies relatively high tensile strength and hardness, the wear‐corrosion rate of 321 SS (0.3132 mm/a) is higher than that of Ti (0.1361 mm/a). It is attributed that 321 SS is easily to wear‐corrosion attributed to its high average friction coefficient, weak structural stability, and self‐repair capability of passive film. Moreover, through electrochemical characterization and XPS analysis of 321 SS and Ti on the wear‐corrosion regions, it is confirmed that the TiO 2 formed on the Ti surface exhibits higher stability than the passive film formed on 321 SS (passive film is mainly made up of Cr 2 O 3 , Cr(OH) 3 , Fe 2 O 3 and Fe(OH) 3 ). A highly stable passive film contributes to enhancing the wear‐corrosion resistance of materials.
Kan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.