A concentrated solar power plant produces electricity by collecting thermal energy from sunlight. Then the thermal energy is stored in the heat transfer fluid (HTF). The most widely used and studied HTF is solar salt (60wt%NaNO3–40wt%KNO3) that achieves the most requirements of HTF. However, at high temperatures, the corrosion is still violent for most materials, thus the material selection is important. This research aims to investigate the feasibility for application of AISI 409 ferritic stainless steel as containers of the molten salt. AISI 409 is suitable for high temperature usage, and more economical than other grades which have higher chromium. To investigate the corrosion resistance in molten salt, AISI 409 samples were coated by dipping in Al slurry. Then they were heated up to 400°C to remove binders. The coatings with Fe-Al intermetallic and alumina layers were formed after binder removal and subsequently annealing at 700°C for 3 h in the air atmosphere. This research reported the corrosion behaviour of Al coated and uncoated samples which had been treated by immersion in molten salt at 500°C for 100 h with analysis results. The results demonstrated that weight and thickness of uncoated samples were increased due to formation of the oxide layers such as Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 on the surfaces. For the Al coated samples, the weight and thickness of the coat layers were massively decreased after being immersed in molten salt at the first 1 h due to removal of Al-O, slag or impurity in the coating. Nevertheless, the weight increased gradually until 100 h. The oxidation of the Fe-Al intermetallic layer exhibited about 35% slower oxidation than that of uncoated samples, thus the coating technique has potential to be applied against molten salt.

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One of the surface modification processes for high-temperature oxidation resistance is slurry aluminizing process, forming protective layer of alumina (Al2O3). However, several important parameters such as annealing times and temperatures should be intensively considered. The objective of this study is to improve the process of slurry aluminide coating of ferritic stainless steels type AISI430 (16%Cr) combat to high-temperature oxidation. The specimens were cut, then ground, and finally sprayed with slurry mixture (Al powder + polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)). They were annealed in Ar at 1100°C for 15 minutes in order to eliminate PVA and form aluminide on their suface. The protective layer Al2O3 was finally formed in the temperature range of 900-1100 °C for 15-60 minutes. The cyclic oxidation tests were performed at 1000 °C for 24 hours. The surface morphology were then examined by XRD, SEM equipped EDS. The results showed that all oxidation kinetics of coated specimens were parabolic. The oxidation rate of uncoated specimens was apparently higher than that of coated specimens. Comparing with all coated specimens, the oxidation rate decreased with the increasing temperature and annealing time. In this study, the coating process at 1100°C for 60 minutes exhibited the lowest oxidation rate due to the most complete layer of Al2O3. The surface morphology showed the formation of continuous layer of Fe2Al5 and Al2O3, acting as barrier layer to oxide growth. Effect of temperature and time on oxidation resistance were discussed in this study.