Effect of cold work on surface reactivity and nano-hardness of alloy 800 in corroding environments

In this paper, in situ scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) was used to investigate effect of cold work on surface reactivity of UNS N08800 alloy, and in situ nanoindentation technique was employed to measure corrosion-induced degradation of resistance to plastic deformation in surface layer. The SECM measurements indicated that cold work would cause an increase of surface reactivity, especially on surface area around non-inclusions. According to in situ nanoindentation measurements, anodic dissolution would reduce the surface hardness. This effect was enhanced by cold work.