Hydrogen concentration gradients in cathodically charged austenitic stainless steel

An x-ray diffraction technique has been developed to makein-situmeasurements of hydrogen concentration profiles from which diffusivity and solubility values are calculated. Hydrogen is supplied to the metal surface by cathodically polarizing it in a bath of 1N H₂SO₄electrolyte. The incident x-ray beam penetrates a thin layer of electrolyte solution at the surface of the sample, thus, x-ray diffraction profile changes can be recorded as a function of charging time and temperature. The applied potential prevents outgassing of the specimen during the measurement. The x-ray diffraction profiles are deconvoluted to remove the α₁/α₂doublet and noncompositional broadening effects. Composition-depth profiles are then obtained from an intensity band transformation of the deconvoluted data. A diffusion coefficient is determined by fitting a solution to Fick's second law to the concentration-depth profile. The technique described here was used to measure hydrogen diffusivity in stainless steel in the temperature range 20°–80°C.