Two types of austenite morphologies, equiaxed and Widmanstätten, were produced through different phase transformation routes to evaluate the critical factors affecting the intergranular corrosion susceptibility in a 2205 duplex stainless steel. These distinct austenite morphologies behaved quite differently in secondary phase precipitation on exposure to sensitization temperature. Although the Widmanstätten microstructure was found to have a larger degree of coherent ferrite/austenite interface area compared with the equiaxed one, it showed a higher degree of sensitization. It was clarified that, in addition to the ferrite/austenite interface coherency, the extent of an interface area and presence of un-stable ferrite also play prominent roles in intergranular corrosion susceptibility. ... Read more