Technical Note: Suppression of Anodic Kinetics of Stainless Steels During Biofilm Development in Natural Seawater

The anodic kinetics of three stainless steels, viz. UNS S31600, S44660, and N08367, in gently flowing natural seawater was investigated. Potentiodynamic anodic polarization showed two distinct passive regimes emerging with biofilm development. A dramatic decrease of anodic current densities (p < 10⁻⁴) was recorded in the lower passive region near the ennobled open-circuit potential, accompanied by an increase of the breakdown potential by over 0.2 V for Alloy S31600. However, significant broadening of the transpassive region was observed on all the three alloys tested. Further, for Alloys S44660 and N08367, the second passive region was altered during biofilm growth, which resulted in enhanced peak current densities. These seemingly undesired effects, nonetheless, were detected far beyond the domain of practical significance. Potentiostatic current-time curves for Alloy N08367 further confirmed the suppression of anodic kinetics in the lower passive region. Evans diagrams constructed from actual polarization curves provided fundamentally important insights that passivity promotion can be independent of microbially enhanced cathodic kinetics.