Evaluation of cyclic hot corrosion behaviour of detonation gun sprayed Cr3C2–25%NiCr coatings on nickel- and iron-based superalloys

In the present investigation, Cr3C2–NiCr cermet coatings were deposited on two Ni-based superalloys, namely superni 75, superni 718 and one Fe-based superalloy superfer 800H by detonation-gun thermal spray process. The cyclic hot-corrosion studies were conducted on uncoated as well as D-gun coated superalloys in the presence of mixture of 75 wt.% Na2SO4 + 25 wt.% K2SO4 film at 900 °C for 100 cycles. Thermogravimetric technique was used to establish the kinetics of hot corrosion of uncoated and coated superalloys. X-ray diffraction, FE-SEM/EDAX and X-ray mapping techniques were used to analyze the corrosion products for rendering an insight into the corrosion mechanisms. It was observed that Cr3C2–NiCr-coated superalloys showed better hot-corrosion resistance than the uncoated superalloys in the presence of 75 wt.% Na2SO4 + 25 wt.% K2SO4 film as a result of the formation of continuous and protective oxides of chromium, nickel and their spinel, as evident from the XRD analysis.