9526411 Brown Recent studies have shown that zirconium nitride can protect stainless steel against seawater corrosion. It appears that the effcct is due to natural conversion of a thin layer of the nitride to hydrated zirconium oxide. Under an SGER award a study will be made of various other refractory nitrides for their potential use as corrosion protection coatings. Pourbaix diagrams will be constructed and candidate materials for testing will be chosen from those that have stable oxides or hydrated oxides at the pH and open potential levels of seawater. The selected nitride coatings will be deposited by plasma arc methods and tested for corrosion resistance by electrochemical techniques. The results may make it possible to replace chromate conversion coatings with the environmentally more benign nitride coatings. ***
