Investigation of impurity driven corrosion behavior in molten 2LiF-BeF2 salt

A 1000-h corrosion experiment of 316H stainless steel at 700 degrees C investigated the role of metal fluoride impurities CrF2 and FeF2 in LiF-BeF2 (66-34 mole %) (FLiBe) salt. Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) demonstrated the ability to measure changes in the concentration of these fluorides in FLiBe salt. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) showed the potential for real-time quantitative concentration measurement of corrosion products in the molten salt. Materials characterization revealed that both impurity species influence the dissolution of Cr from the alloy. The collective results from these analysis methods advance the understanding of the influence impurities have on materials corrosion.