Austenitic stainless steels passivity alloy surface layers

It will also be shown that the thickness of the passive films, while varying with the potential of passivation, is commonly only a few nanometers. Finally, we shall see that in austenitic stainless steels tire active stage of repassivation often results in considerable change in composition at the alloy surface. The possible role of this modified alloy layer in the overall passivation process will be discussed. 

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