How do you passivate metal?
Table of Contents
Forced passivation
- Cleaning the item to remove surface oil and impurities.
- Passivating in baths of nitric acid or citric acid, or by using an electrochemical process.
- Rinsing the item of all traces of the acid solution, taking any remaining free iron with it.
- The item is placed under conditions that promote oxidation.
What is a passivation process?
The passivation process is a method of improving the corrosion resistance of stainless steel parts by removing ferrous contaminants like free iron from their surface, restoring them to their original corrosion specifications.
What does not passivated mean?
Passivation is the process of treating or coating a metal in order to reduce the chemical reactivity of its surface. In stainless steel, passivation means removing the free iron from the surface of the metal using an acid solution to prevent rust.

What are the types of passivation?
Any one of three approaches can be used—nitric acid passivation, nitric acid with sodium dichromate passivation and citric acid passivation. Which approach to use depends on the grade of stainless steel and prescribed acceptance criteria.
What passivated mean?

Definition of passivate transitive verb. 1 : to make inactive or less reactive passivate the surface of steel by chemical treatment. 2 : to protect (something, such as a solid-state device) against contamination by coating or surface treatment.
What is citric passivation?
Citric acid passivation is the use of citric acid to passivate stainless steel (SS) and other alloys to prevent corrosion. By removing free iron ions and forming a protective passive oxide layer on the surface, the stainless steel or other metal becomes highly resistant to rust.
What does passivation do to metal?
Passivation is a widely-used metal finishing process to prevent corrosion. In stainless steel, the passivation process uses nitric acid or citric acid to remove free iron from the surface. The chemical treatment leads to a protective oxide layer that is less likely to chemically react with air and cause corrosion.
What does gold passivated mean?
Zinc plate or gold passivated (Interior screws) These types of screws have a thin protective coating and aren’t as hard wearing as other kinds of screws, so they’re used primarily for indoor use or protected undercover outdoor areas.
Can aluminum be passivated?
Aluminium passivation allows this extremely ductile material to be used in a wide variety of contexts. Unlike stainless steel, aluminium does not naturally have protection against corrosion. For this reason, induced passivation is necessary in all cases.
Does titanium get passivated?
The passivation of titanium does not affect or improve its corrosion resistant oxide layer. However, passivation of titanium does remove iron and other surfaces contaminates.
Does titanium need to be passivated?
Titanium should not even be passivated, and in citric acid is dangerous for titanium because crack corrosion can build up in the material. A. You can treat titanium in Nitric acid for many hours, and nothing will happen, since titanium is passive in nitric.