General Forums > Generic Discussion

Question steel and vapor acid

(1/2) > >>

metroidfan:

surgical steel is corroded oxidized by some presence of muriatic acid vapor in the environment?

Enthalpy:
"Surgical steel" isn't accurate enough. It can belong to very different families of stainless steel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgical_stainless_steel

The hard martensitic or ledeburitic stainless steels make cutting tools, possibly some prostheses. They definitely won't resist hydrochloric acid. Even a short exposure would collapse its future resistance to water, needing special cleaning.

The softer austenitic stainless steel, of "surgical" or marine composition (Aisi 316L or 17Cr-12Ni-Mo-blahblah) makes piercings and some implants. It resists hydrochloric acid in reasonable concentration at room temperature.

metroidfan:

Do I clean bathroom with muriatic acid generate a muriatic vapor spread throughout the house corroding these metals?  vapor muriatic acid corrosion?
I refer to the surgical steel of the balls used in supplement mix shakers

Borek:
We told you many times that it is impossible to answer precisely your questions as there are way too many unknowns.

pcm81:
This reply is meant for the benefit of future readers, because i guess OP is long gone by now...

Anyhow, HCl, which is the acid present in Muriatic acid, should never be used to clean any steel. Chlorine will remain on the surface and accelerate corrosion.

Stainless steel seems to not rust, because it is passivated.
An acid like nitric acid or citric acid is used to selectively dissolve iron from the surface increasing percentage of chromium from ~11%, as found in bulk stainless steel, to a much higher amount at the surface. The exposure to air and moisture causes chromium to oxidize, forming chromium oxide layer. Unlike rust, chromium oxide layer is much stronger than iron oxide hence it stays on the surface and protects against further rusting. Eventually, wear and tear will degrade the chromium oxide layer exposing fresh iron atoms and rust will form. Repassivation can fix the issue.
For a home DIYer the citric acid is the best bet since nitric acid can be a rather nasty chemical to deal with.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page