Investigation of the interaction of liquid tin-lithium alloy with austenitic stainless steel at high temperatures

•Experimental studies on the high-temperature interaction of liquid Sn-Li alloy (with a lithium content of 27%) with austenitic 12Cr18Ni10Ti grade stainless-steel.•Interaction of stainless-steel with liquid Sn-Li alloy at high temperatures complex physical and chemical processes take place: selective dissolution of components of steel by liquid alloy; interaction of component of liquid Sn-Li alloy into depth of stainless-steel; mass transfer of dissolved metals from solid metal to liquid metal.•Results of compatibility of a liquid Sn-Li alloy with stainless-steel. This paper describes research work to determine the corrosion compatibility of material of the capillary-porous structure (CPS) matrix with a liquid tin-lithium (Sn-Li) alloy at high temperatures. The studies were carried out with the Sn-Li alloy containing 73 at.% of tin and 27 at.% of lithium and samples of 12Cr18Ni10Ti grade austenitic stainless-steel. This steel was proposed as one of the options as a candidate material for the Sn-Li CPS matrix manufacturing. Experiments on the interaction of a liquid Sn-Li alloy with stainless-steel at high temperatures were carried out on the TiGrA experimental facility based on the Mettler Toledo TGA/DSC 3+ thermogravimetric analyzer. The temperature gap in corrosion experiments ranged from 600 °C to 1000 °C, the interaction time for each temperature level was about 10 h. In the course of the work, experiments were carried out to study the compatibility of a Sn-Li alloy in the liquid phase with stainless-steel at temperatures of 600 °C, 800 °C and 1000 °C. Post-experimental studies of stainless-steel samples were carried out using microstructural and energy-dispersive analysis. Based on the results obtained, it was determined that when stainless-steel interacts with an Sn-Li alloy at high temperatures, complex physical-chemical processes occur, such as: selective dissolution of steel components by a liquid alloy; permeation of the liquid alloy into stainless-steel; mass transfer of dissolved metals from a solid metal to a liquid one.