DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL

ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

LAHORE (New Campus)

Lab Report 4

Biomaterials
SUBMITTED BY:

Bushra Eman

(2020-BME-24)

Date: 26-09-2022

SUBMITTED TO:

Dr. Nida Iqbal

Experiment: 4

To study the effect of corrosion of Stainless Steel (SS) and Mild Steel (MS)

in basic media.

 Objective
To study the effect of corrosion of stainless steel (SS) and mild steel (MS) in basic
media ( like NaOH).
 Theory
Corrosion
Corrosion is a natural process that causes the transformation of pure metals into undesirable
substances when they react with substances such as water or air. This reaction causes damage
or disintegration of metal as it interfaces with the environment and gradually spreads to the
entire bulk of the metal.

Conditions for Corrosion of Metals.

Corrosion of mild steel and stainless steel in Basic/Alkali media

The corrosion of mild steel and stainless steel in NaOH solutions is caused by hydrogen
evolution at the cathodic sites and active dissolution of iron via a two- electron transfer
reaction at the anodic sites.

Chemical Reaction:
NaOH is a strong reducing base, which makes it highly corrosive when in contact with most
materials. But NaOH solution required elevated temperatures to corrode the metals.

 Apparatus Required
Accessories
• Beakers (12)

• Measuring flask

• Tray
• Labelling tape & marker

• Forceps

• Aluminum Foil

• Lubrication oil

Chemicals

• 5% NaOH solution

• 10% NaOH solution

Samples:

• Mild Steel Sample (6)

• Stainless Steel Sample (6)

 Experimental Procedure

1. Take a measuring cylinder and prepare 5% NaOH and 10% NaOH solution.
2. Take out your samples from the previous experiments and weigh all of them using a
weighing balance.
3. Take 12 small beakers of 25ml capacity and label them differently mentioning 5% and
10% NaOH concentrated solutions.
4. Add 20ml of 5% NaOH in 6 labelled beakers and 10% NaOH in other 6 labelled beakers.
5. Now add 3 mild steel samples in 5% NaOH solutions and 3 mild steel samples in 10%
NaOH solution.
6. Similarly add 3 stainless steel samples in 5% NaOH solutions and other 3 stainless steel
samples in 10% NaOH solution.
7. Observe the reading on next day, then day 03 and lastly at day 07.
8. Record the observations in tabular form.
9. After completion of experiment at day 7, wrap the samples in aluminum foils after
applying the lubrication oil.

 Observation
Mild Corrodent Weights Day 1 Day 3 Day 7
Steel

1 5% NaOH W1 12.498g 12.72g 10.84g

 2 10% NaOH W2 11.087g 11.316g 16.260g

Table 1

Stainless Corrodent Weights Day 1 Day 3 Day 7

Steel

1 5% NaOH W1 13.619g 18.65g 16.576g

2 10% NaOH W2 7.104g 16.582g 7.906g

Table 2

 Calculations:

Percentage weight loss = (initial weight-final weight/initial weight) × 100 Percentage

Percentage weight loss

Mild Steel
Corrodents Day
Day 1 Day 2
3

1 5% NaOH 2.030% -1.80% 0.2%

2 10%NaOH 0% 0.229% 0.264%

Table 3

Percentage weight

Stainless steel Corrodents loss

Day 3
Day 1 Day 2

1 5% NaOH 0.029% 0.29% 0.2%

2 10% NaOH 0% 0.210% 0.215%

Table 4
  Results
From above observations and calculations, it is evident that the percentage corrosion of mild
steel is very much greater than stainless steel. This happens only because mild steel has less
percentage of carbon than the stainless steel. While stainless steel has very high percentage of
carbon, it doesn’t get corroded easily as compared other metals like aluminum, copper, mild
steel etc. Particularly for NaOH solution, elevated temperatures are required to corrode the steel.

 Bar graph
Mild Steel and Stainless Steel at 5% and 10% NaOH solutions:

Chart Title
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
MS (5%NaOH) SS (5%NaOH) MS (10%NaOH) SS(10%NaOH)

Day 1 Day 3 Day 7

 Discussion
Corrosion is a natural phenomenon occurring in almost all the metals and it depends on a
number of factors. These factors are of environmental and chemical nature. Environmental
factors such as humidity and rain can cause the corrosion of materials. The chemical factors are
acidic medium and basic medium that can cause corrosion by different chemical reactions due to
presence of water and formation of H+ and OHions. This corrosion method is sometimes also
used in itching process to itch something on the metals.

 Conclusion
Stainless Steel has high corrosion resistance than Mild Steel due to higher percentage of carbon
in it.

 Precautions

• Wear Gloves

• Wear Safety Goggles (if possible)

• Wear close toe shoes

• Wear Lab Coat

• Do not eat and drink in lab

• Do not taste any chemicals in lab

• Do not put bags on workstation.