* T. J.

Hakkarainen
VTT Industrial Systems,
P.O. Box 1704, FIN-02044 VTT (Finland)
Microbiologically influenced corrosion of
stainless steels What is required for pitting?
T. J. Hakkarainen*
Pitting of stainless steels in environments normally regarded as
completely harmless is often attributed to microbial activity. In this
paper, attention is drawn on one hand to the basic requirements for
pitting of stainless steels to be possible, and on the other hand to
various ways how microbial activity could contribute to a fulfil-
ment of these requirements. For pit growth to be possible, three ba-
sic requirements must be fulfilled: 1) the environment must contain
anions that can form an aggressive solution into the pit, 2) there
must be a potential difference between the interior of the pit and
the open surface outside the pit, 3) the temperature must exceed
a critical value. The main factors that normally influence the pos-
sibility of pitting are the chloride content and the oxidising power of
the environment, presence of anions other than chloride, tempera-
ture, possible presence of deposits on the steel surface, and the com-
position of the steel. Anions other than chloride in the bulk solution,
including sulphate, usually have an inhibiting effect. Thiosulphate,
however, is known to promote pitting under certain conditions. The
possible ways of microbial activity to enhance pitting could include
deposit formation leading to crevice type of attack, local modifica-
tion of the composition of the environment to a more concentrated
one, raising the electrode potential of the steel surface (ennoble-
ment), or formation of reaction products that permit active disso-
lution inside a pit at lower potentials. Special attention is drawn to
the possible action of thiosulphate by enhancing the anodic reaction
at low potentials of the dissolving surface inside the pits.
1 Introduction
Most features of the mechanism of pitting corrosion of
stainless steels in plain chloride solutions are fairly well un-
derstood. Almost all of the quantitative data on pitting comes,
however, from laboratory experiments that may have little in
common with the service environments in practical applica-
tions. Unexpected pitting therefore continues to cause sur-
prises in many applications of stainless steels where the en-
vironment is regarded to be completely harmless. A proper
understanding of the effects of the main factors, including mi-
crobial activity, on pitting attack will help as well in evaluat-
ing the possibillity and severity of possible corrosion attack to
be expected as in analysing the causes of corrosion failures.
2 Pitting of stainless steels
2.1 What happens in pitting?
In pitting corrosion of stainless steels, cavities with small
openings to the steel surface are formed, while most of the
surface remains unattacked, Fig 1. This means that the envir-
onment inside the pits must differ from that outside it. During
the pitting process, metal cations are transported out of the pit
and anions from the bulk solution into the pit.
The solution inside growing corrosion pits in stainless steels
in chloride environments has been shown to be a concentrated
acidic metal chloride solution (e.g., [14]). The pit solution is
expected to contain metal cations in approximately the same
proportions as the steel [4, 5]. In an acid solution and at the
relatively low potentials inside the pits, the main constituents
of stainless steels will dissolve as Fe
2
, Cr
3
, Ni
2
and Mo
3
.
The average electric charge of the cations then is in the range
from 2.22 to 2.26, depending on the steel grade [5, 6]. When
saturated at room temperature, such a metal chloride solution
contains approximately 10 mol/l of chloride ions and about
4.5 mol/l of metal cations [7]. The average atomic weight
of solid stainless steel is about 56, and its density about
8 g/cm
3
. This corresponds to a metal concentration of
over 140 mol/l. As a saturated chloride solution, the metal ca-
tions thus occupy a volume about 30 times as large as in the
metallic state.
For the pitting process not to become blocked by precipi-
tated solid salts that would fill the pit and stop the ion trans-
port, at least 97 % of the dissolving metal cations therefore
have to be transported out of the pit. At elevated temperatures
Fig. 1. The main electrochemical reactions and transport phenom-
ena in pitting of stainless steel in chloride environments. The sym-
bol M
i
stands for iron, chromium, nickel or molybdenum
Materials and Corrosion 54, 503509 (2003) MIC of stainless steels 503
F 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 0947-5117/03/0707-0503$17.50.50/0
the solubility of metal chlorides is somewhat higher, but mod-
erately only. It can be estimated that at 70 8C about 23 times
more metal cations are being produced by the dissolution re-
action than can remain in solution inside the pit at steady state
pit growth [5]. Thus, even at elevated temperatures, more than
95 %of the dissolving metal cations must be transported out of
the pit. A flux of anions into the pit is needed to balance the
positive charge of the metal cations remaining dissolved in-
side the pit.
2.2 The basic requirements
2.2.1 Aggressive solution in the pit
The mode of dissolution inside a growing corrosion pit is
uniform attack. Thus, for pitting to propagate, the bulk envi-
ronment must contain anions that can form inside the pit a
solution where the steel is dissolved at a high rate. It is im-
portant to realize that uniform dissolution of stainless steels
is normally expected in very acidic, in extremely alkaline
or possibly in extremely oxidizing environments only. Within
a wide pH potential range, stainless steels are either in the
state of passivity or in the state of immunity, Fig. 2. Corrosion
of a stainless steel is expected to take place only if neither iron
nor chromium is in the state of immunity or passivity. Stain-
less steels simply do not dissolve into neutral or moderately
acidic or alkaline solutions. Especially for highly alloyed
stainless steels, the depassivation pH [8] values can be
very low indeed, well below 1, or even below 0. Because
very low pH values in the pit are required, anions of a strong
acid must be present.
In bulk solutions that do not support uniform corrosion, the
acidity must be produced inside the pits. The acidification is
usually attributed mainly to the hydrolysis of chromic ions [1]:
Cr
3
H
2
O !CrOH

2
H

1
The pK value for this reaction is 3.81 [9]. High concen-
trations of Cr
3
are required for very low pH values. If, for
simplicity, the activity coefficients of all participating ions
are assumed to be 1, the pH value of a 1 molar solution of
a Cr
3
salt should be about 1.9. For pH 1.5, an approximately
6.5 molar solution (25 wt.-% Cr
3
!) would be required.
Clearly, this reaction alone does not explain the very low
pH values required and observed in pit solutions. There-
fore, chloride ions are thought to play a role in the acidifica-
tion process itself [13]. In fact, pHvalues down to 1.4 have
been reported for saturated chromic chloride solutions [10]. A
similar capability to lower strongly the pH value of the pit
solution would be required from other anions to be able to
support a corrosive environment in the pit.
In addition to remaining fully dissociated at very low pH
values and being able to lower the pH in Cr
3
containing so-
lutions, there is a further requirement for the aggressive an-
ions. The solubility of their salts with the dissolved metal ca-
tions must be high enough to support a concentrated solution
with a low pH value.
Hydrochloric acid is such a very strong acid: it remains
fully dissociated even at extremely low pH values
(pK 6.1). Also for the solubility of metal salts, chloride
ions fulfil the requirement: the chlorides of all the major con-
stituents of stainless steels are highly soluble in water.
2.2.2 Potential difference between pit interior and open
surface
A second basic requirement for pitting is that there must be
a potential difference (electric field) between the interior of
the pit and the open surface outside the pit (the bulk solution),
i.e., the inside of the pit must be anodically polarised.
Metal cations are transported out of the pit by both diffusion
and electromigration. Convection can normally be disre-
garded. For anions, on the other hand, diffusion and electro-
migration act in opposite directions, since the concentration
(the activity) of the anions almost invariably is higher inside
the pit than outside it in the bulk solution. Therefore, at least
for the anions electromigration must dominate over diffusion.
This means that there must be an electric field (potential dif-
ference) strong enough to draw anions from the bulk solution
into the pit.
At the low potentials inside a pit, H

ions can be reduced to

hydrogen atoms. If, however, the only source of new H

ions
is reaction (1), this cathodic reaction can consume less than
10 % of the electrons liberated in the oxidation reactions of
the dissolving constituents of stainless steel. This means
that despite the possibility of hydrogen reduction inside the
pits, the overwhelming part of the cathodic reaction (consum-
ing electrons) must take place outside the pit.
2.2.3 Critical temperature
A third basic requirement is that the temperature must ex-
ceed a critical value, dependent on both the steel grade and
the values of environmental factors. This is an empirical find-
ing: there seems to be no clear simple explanation why such a
critical temperature should exist. For the most commonly used
stainless steel grades, these critical temperatures for pitting
are below room temperature, and are therefore often not re-
levant for practical applications. For highly alloyed stainless
steels, on the other hand, the critical temperature may be an
important design criterion.
Fig. 2. Areas of corrosion, passivation and immunity of stainless
steels obtained by superposing the potential-pH diagrams of iron
and chromium (after [9])
504 Hakkarainen Materials and Corrosion 54, 503509 (2003)
2.3 Effects of key variables
The main factors that normally influence pitting are the
chloride content of the environment, possible presence of
other anions, the oxidising power of the environment
(the electrode potential of the open surface outside the pit),
temperature, and the composition of the steel (steel grade).
These variables are not independent: changes in the value
of one will often, but not always, change the critical values
of the other ones.
2.3.1 Chloride content
A critical content of chloride ions in the bulk solution is
practically always required for pitting to occur. This critical
value may depend strongly on the values of the other vari-
ables, especially the oxidising power of the environment.
In the bulk solution, the main function of chloride ions is to
provide a sufficient amount of chloride ions into the pit. The
transport mechanism is electromigration. This means that for
an equal flux of chloride ions, lower chloride contents require
higher electric fields and thus higher electrode potentials. In
solutions where chloride ions are the dominant anions, a sec-
ond function of chloride is to increase the conductivity of the
solution. Increased conductivity, in turn, will mean that lower
potentials will be able to support the growth of pits.
At the dissolving surface inside a pit, the concentration
(chloride content) of the solution must exceed a critical value
for a very rapid dissolution to be possible [7, 11, 12]. This
critical concentration depends at least on the steel grade,
the electrode potential and the temperature, but is usually
very high, typically more than 0.7 times the saturation value.
2.3.2 Electrode potential
Outside pits
The electrode potentials measured or controlled in connec-
tion with pitting are normally the open surface potentials out-
side the pits. In a given environment, the possibility of pitting
is usually characterised by the so-called pit initiation (nuclea-
tion) and pit repassivation potentials, Fig. 3. Pit initiation is
considered to be possible only above the pit nucleation poten-
tial (E
n
), whereas existing pits can continue growing at poten-
tials above the pit repassivation potential (E
p
). Below the re-
passivation potential all pits will stop growing (repassivate).
In using the values of such potentials to characterise the pit-
ting behaviour of a given material in a given environment, it
must be kept in mind that the actual values may depend
strongly on various experimental factors, such as the prepara-
tion of the specimen surface, potential sweep rate, pit growth
time during the test, and even the experimental set-up.
Inside pits
Open circuit potentials in the solutions inside pits can be
determined, e.g., by making electrochemical measurements
in simulated pit solutions [7, 1112], by switching off the
anodic polarisation during stable growth of macroscopic
one-dimensional model pits and recording immediately the
potential value [5, 6], or by making backscan experiments
on similar pits at a sufficiently high rate [5, 6].
The open circuit potentials of commercial stainless steels in
the pit solutions are in plain chloride bulk solutions typically
in the range 50...350 mV (SCE), depending on the steel
composition, but may be as low as 400...500 mV (SCE)
in environments containing sulphur compounds (thiosulphate)
[13]. During active pit growth, the potential of the dissolving
surface will be somewhat higher than the open circuit poten-
tial, but moderately only. For stable pit growth, the external
(open surface) potential remote from the pit must normally
exceed these potentials by at least 200...300 mV.
Pitting under open circuit conditions
At open circuit conditions, the sum of all cathodic reactions
must equal the sum of all anodic reactions. When pitting
starts, enhanced cathodic reaction on the open surface is re-
quired to balance the increased anodic reaction. Even in very
strongly oxidising environments, the open surface potential
may therefore drop dramatically, Fig. 4. In solutions with a
high redox potential but low oxidising power, this may
lead to insufficient anodic polarisation of the pit, and thus
to a repassivation of the pit.
Fig. 3. Cyclic polarisation curve of stainless steel showing poten-
tials for pit initiation (E
n
) and pit repassivation (E
p
)
Fig. 4. Effect of pitting on the open circuit potential of a stainless
steel specimen (30 cm
2
) at 70 8C in strongly oxidizing chloride-sul-
phate-chlorine dioxide environment [15]
Materials and Corrosion 54, 503509 (2003) MIC of stainless steels 505
IR-drops
Because of the high current densities in the pits, significant
potential drops (IR drops) normally arise even in environ-
ments with fairly high conductivity. A factor often overlooked
is the IR-drop in the bulk solution outside the pit. In many
environments causing pitting, however, the main part of the
potential drops is expected to arise outside the pit (in the
bulk solution), not inside the pit [5, 6, 14].
2.3.3 Temperature
There are indications that for proper pitting, involving a
rapid dissolution process in the pit, there exists a minimum
temperature, below which pitting of a given stainless steel
cannot proceed, regardless of the chloride content and oxidis-
ing power of the environment [5, 12, 15]. An explanation for
this behaviour could be that below the critical temperature the
stainless steel will passivate in a pit solution of any concen-
tration [16].
This passivation seems not, however, to mean a real pas-
sivation, but dissolution is still possible, and does take place,
but at significantly lower rates than those required for prop-
er pitting [11, 12]. This would imply that crevice corrosion
type of attack, where the ion equilibrium (low pH, concen-
trated solution) at the dissolving steel surface can be retained
by low dissolution rates, can proceed also below the critical
temperature for pit propagation. Both practical experience and
test results [12] confirm that this is the case.
The critical temperatures for pitting are often determined
under given experimental conditions. The most common
test environments are a 6% ferric chloride (FeCl
3
) solution,
or, e.g., a 1 mol/l sodium chloride (NaCl) solution under ano-
dic polarisation. These tests give values that have been
claimed to correspond well to practical experience, e.g., in
seawater [17].
2.3.4 Deposits on steel surface
Solid deposits that are to some extent permeable to ion
transport are expected to modify the pit morphology towards
a more open and shallow one, Fig. 5. Also, since the dissolu-
tion rates required to maintain the concentration of the solu-
tion in the pit at a level high enough for continued dissolution
may be significantly lower than those for open pits, lower
open surface potentials (less polarisation) are required for pit-
ting attack in the presence of deposits than without them.
Deposits impermeable to ion transport ceate a crevice-like
situation where all ion transport takes place through the mouth
of the crevice, Fig. 6. In tight and deep crevices the ion trans-
port rates are low, and consequently a fairly weak anodic po-
larisation (low oxidation power of the environment) may be
enough to sustain the corrosion attack.
2.3.5 Other anions
Most anions other than chloride (or other halides) in the
bulk solution are normally considered to have an inhibiting
effect on pitting. With respect to the presence of such ions,
the real service environments, especially various process en-
vironments, often differ from the plain chloride solutions nor-
mally used in laboratory investigations.
Sulphate
The inhibiting effect of sulphate ions on pit initiation has
been demonstrated by laboratory experiments [1822], and
is normally not disputed. On the other hand, once pitting at-
tack has started, sulphate ions in the bulk solution seem to be
fairly ineffective in stopping the pit growth [5, 6, 23]. On the
contrary, sulphate ions in amounts in excess of that of chloride
ions seem to stabilise the pit growth as compared to plain
chloride solutions [5, 23].
The sulphate content of the solution and the temperature
often have a strong effect on the chloride content required
for pitting, even in very highly oxidising environments [19,
23].
Thiosulphate
Thiosulphate ions in correct proportions to chloride and/or
sulphate ions are reported to be capable of inducing pitting
attack of some stainless steels at potentials substantially lower
than those required for chloride induced pitting to occur [13,
Fig. 5. Possible shape of pit under a deposit acting as a limited bar-
rier to ion transport
Fig. 6. Typical cross-section of crevice corrosion attack under
strong external anodic polarisation
506 Hakkarainen Materials and Corrosion 54, 503509 (2003)
2428]. It has been suggested that inside the pit thiosulphate
ions are reduced to elemental sulphur, which in turn would
prevent the passivation of the surface [26].
Once pitting is in progress, anodic polarisation of the metal
surface outside the pit is expected to have only a limited, if
any, effect on the electrode potential inside the pits. Thus,
an apparent upper limiting potential observed in scratch
tests in thiosulphate solutions [26] may be relevant for the
pit initiation stage only. Once the attack has started as chloride
induced pitting at higher potentials, thiosulphate is able to ex-
tend the potential region of pit growth to low values [13, 27],
Fig. 7 and Fig. 8. In the experiments of Fig. 8, model pits of
Type B described, e.g., in [5] were used.
3 How microbes may promote pitting?
In recent years it has become more and more clear that mi-
crobiological activity may play a role in pitting of stainless
steels in many environments that have generally been thought
to be completely harmless. On the other hand, there are indi-
cations that at least in some cases biofilms may inhibit pitting
rather than catalyse it [29, 30].
In view of the factors influencing pitting of stainless steels
there are several ways how microbial activity could be able to
increase its likelihood. These include, e.g., formation of de-
posits favouring crevice type of attack, raising the electrode
potential of the steel surface (increasing the oxidation power
of the environment), modifying locally the composition of the
environment at the steel surface to a more concentrated one,
formation of reaction products that allow active dissolution
inside the pit at lower potentials, or a combination of two
or more of these.
3.1 Formation of crevices
Perhaps the most straightforward way of microbial activity
to enhance pitting would be through a formation of biofilms or
equivalent deposits that would favour crevice type of attack,
Fig. 9. The biofilms formed in practical applications, how-
ever, seem usually to be too permeable to ion transport for
such an effect to be observed. Also, if the steel surface
were completely covered by such a dense deposit, increased
likelihood for attack would not be expected, because for cre-
vice corrosion a cathodic reaction outside the crevice on a sur-
face in galvanic contact with the crevice area is required.
3.2 Ennoblement
It is a common observation that the open circuit potential of
stainless steels in natural waters, especially in seawater, is
shifted within 34 weeks to a range of 300400 mV
(SCE). These values are about 200300 mVhigher than those
in corresponding synthetic or sterilised waters. This ennoble-
ment is commonly attributed to bacterial activity.
In a situation corresponding to Fig. 3, a potential shift from
a value below 100 mV to about 400 mVis indeed expected to
result in a start of pitting attack. Once in progress, pitting may
continue at potentials lower than those required for pit initia-
tion. For the ennoblement mechanism to be able to trigger a
stable pitting attack, it must supply a cathodic reaction power-
ful enough to balance the intensified anodic reaction.
Many hypotheses have been presented to explain the enno-
blement. In recent years, increased attention has been called to
Fig. 7. Effect of thiosulphate addition on the cyclic polarisation
curve of stainless steel in chloride solution (after [28])
Fig. 8. Effect of thiosulphate on dissolution rate in a model pit at
successively decreasing control potentials. Stainless steel type AISI
316, 70 8C, solution containing 7100 mg/l chloride
Fig. 9. Sketch of possible action of biofilm as a barrier for ion
transport
Materials and Corrosion 54, 503509 (2003) MIC of stainless steels 507
a possible role of manganese oxidising bacteria in causing the
ennoblement (e.g., [3133]). The principle of the mechanism
would be that certain bacteria oxidise soluble manganese ions
(Mn
2
) to form solid manganese dioxide (MnO
2
) on the steel
surface. This solid manganese dioxide, in turn, would provide
an enhanced cathodic reaction by being reduced back to
Mn
2
, Fig. 10.
An essential feature required from such a reducible deposit
is that it must be in galvanic contact with the steel undergoing
pitting. It seems that in this respect there is a significant dif-
ference between manganese oxide deposits and precipitated
ferric (Fe
3
) hydroxides or oxides. The latter have not been
reported to cause ennoblement, although they could provide
a possibility to an enhanced cathodic reaction at potentials
higher than those normal without ennoblement. Thus, iron
oxidising bacteria (Fe
2
!Fe
3
) are not expected to induce
an increased risk of pitting.
3.3 Increased concentration of solution
The susceptibility of pitting of stainless steels increases if
the chloride content in the environment increases. Thus, if
chloride ions were concentrated in the biofilm, the possibility
of pitting would be expected to increase. To be effective, the
chloride ions should be free, i.e., they should be in the form
of dissolved ions. Why such an increase should take place is
unclear. On the other hand, there might be a possibility that
living bacteria contain concentrated chloride solution that will
be released if the bacteria disintegrate, giving a tiny pulse of
chloride ions into the environment.
3.4 Promotion of dissolution inside pits
If the potential range of active dissolution inside the pits
were shifted to values considerably lower than those typical
of chloride solutions, pitting in seemingly harmless environ-
ments could be supported by an oxidising power normal for
most environments, without any specific ennoblement. This
would be the case if a proper amount of thiosulphate were pre-
sent in the solution [13, 2428].
Thiosulphate ions could be produced as the result of the
action of sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB), which are com-
mon in most environments (e.g., [29]). Practically all waters
contain sulphate ions. These can be reduced by SRB to sul-
phide, which in turn in presence of, e.g., dissolved oxygen can
be oxidised to form thiosulphate ions, Fig. 11.
3.5 Combined mechanisms
The action of bacteria in enhancing pitting of stainless
steels could be expected to be especially effective if both man-
ganese oxidising bacteria and sulphate reducing bacteria
would be active on the same steel surface, but in different lo-
cations. The manganese dioxide produced by the former ones
would result in an enhanced cathodic reaction, and thiosul-
phate produced as a result of the action of the SRB could per-
mit pit growth at reduced anodic polarisation of the pit inte-
rior.
4 Conclusions
The requirements to be fulfilled for pitting of stainless
steels to be possible are that
anions of a strong acid, usually chloride, must be present in
the environment, and
the environment must be oxidising enough to provide a suf-
ficient potential difference between the pit interior and the
open surface outside the pit. Pit growth may be facilitated if
thiosulphate ions are present.
The most likely ways of microbial activity to promote pit-
ting of stainless steels are by
action of managenese oxidising bacteria through ennoble-
ment, i.e., raising the electrode potential of the steel and
thereby providing increased cathodic reaction, and
action of sulphate reducing bacteria leading to formation of
thiosulphate ions.
Fig. 10. Sketch of the action of manganese oxidising bacteria caus-
ing ennoblement of stainless steel
Fig. 11. Principle of the action of sulphate reducing bacteria to pro-
duce thiosulphate ions
508 Hakkarainen Materials and Corrosion 54, 503509 (2003)
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Materials and Corrosion 54, 503509 (2003) MIC of stainless steels 509