FIGURE 1: THE ISOCORROSION CURVE FOR ZIRCONIUM IN NITRIC ACID

Another strength of zirconium is its ability to handle a wide variety of impurities commonly found in nitric acid environments, with little or no effect on corrosion rate. The presence of FeCl3, Cr+6 seawater, NaCl, chlorine (Cl2), iron or stainless steel does not degrade zirconiumÕs resistance to HNO3 (Table 2). While zirconium is normally susceptible to pitting in acidic oxidizing chloride solutions, the NO3- ion effectively inhibits this phenomenon.

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