Corrosion partial reactions

The oxidation products are almost insoluble and lead to the formation of protective films. They promote aeration cells if these products do not cover the metal surface uniformly. Ions of soluble salts play an important role in these cells. In the schematic diagram in Fig. 4-1 it is assumed that from the start the two corrosion partial reactions are taking place at two entirely separate locations. This process must quickly come to a complete standstill if soluble salts are absent, because otherwise the ions produced according to Eqs. (2-21) and (2-17) would form a local space charge. Corrosion in salt-free water is only possible if the two partial reactions are not spatially separated, but occur at the same place with equivalent current densities. The reaction products then react according to Eq. (4-2) and in the subsequent reactions (4-3a) and (4-3b) to form protective films. Similar behavior occurs in salt-free sandy soils. 

The thermodynamic condition for an electrode reaction to take place (including the corrosion partial reaction) can be written in the form [cf. Eqs. (16a) and (16b))... 

In electrolytic corrosion, an anodic partial reaction takes place according to Eq. (2-3)... 

Equation (2-38) is valid for every region of the surface. In this case only weight loss corrosion is possible and not localized corrosion. Figure 2-5 shows total and partial current densities of a mixed electrode. In free corrosion 7 = 0. The free corrosion potential lies between the equilibrium potentials of the partial reactions and U Q, and corresponds in this case to the rest potential. Deviations from the rest potential are called polarization voltage or polarization. At the rest potential = ly l, which is the corrosion rate in free corrosion. With anodic polarization resulting from positive total current densities, the potential becomes more positive and the corrosion rate greater. This effect is known as anodic enhancement of corrosion. For a quantitative view, it is unfortunately often overlooked that neither the corrosion rate nor its increase corresponds to anodic total current density unless the cathodic partial current is negligibly small. Quantitative forecasts are possible only if the Jq U) curve is known. 

Correspondingly, amphoteric aluminum materials suffer active corrosion by the anodic partial reaction ... 

Surface films are formed by corrosion on practically all commercial metals and consist of solid corrosion products (see area II in Fig. 2-2). It is essential for the protective action of these surface films that they be sufficiently thick and homogeneous to sustain the transport of the reaction products between metal and medium. With ferrous materials and many other metals, the surface films have a considerably higher conductivity for electrons than for ions. Thus the cathodic redox reaction according to Eq. (2-9) is considerably less restricted than it is by the transport of metal ions. The location of the cathodic partial reaction is not only the interface between the metal and the medium but also the interface between the film and medium, in which the reaction product OH is formed on the surface film and raises the pH. With most metals this reduces the solubility of the surface film (i.e., the passive state is stabilized). 

Both partial reactions are stimulated on uncovered areas of the metal surface. Coverage of such a region is determined by whether the corrosion product is formed actually on the metal surface or whether it arises initially as solid oxide at some... 

Corrosion likelihood describes the expected corrosion rates or the expected extent of corrosion effects over a planned useful life [14]. Accurate predictions of corrosion rates are not possible, due to the incomplete knowledge of the parameters of the system and, most of all, to the stochastic nature of local corrosion. Figure 4-3 gives schematic information on the different states of corrosion of extended objects (e.g., buried pipelines) according to the concepts in Ref. 15. The arrows represent the current densities of the anode and cathode partial reactions at a particular instant. It must be assumed that two narrowly separated arrows interchange with each other periodically in such a way that they exist at both fracture locations for the same amount of time. The result is a continuous corrosion attack along the surface. 

A relatively high degree of corrosion arises from microbial reduction of sulfates in anaerobic soils [20]. Here an anodic partial reaction is stimulated and the formation of electrically conductive iron sulfide deposits also favors the cathodic partial reaction. 

With anodic polarization, the anodic partial reaction predominates at defects so that OH" ions formed according to Eq. (2-17) are combined in the corrosion... 

Due to both carbonization and penetration of chloride ions, steel will pass from a passive to an active condition and (consequently) may corrode. If the mortar is completely surrounded by water, oxygen diffusion in wet mortar is extremely low so that the situation is corrosion resistant because the cathodic partial reaction according to Eq. (2-17) scarcely occurs. For this reason the mortar lining of waste pipes remains protective against corrosion even if it is completely carbonated or if it is penetrated by chloride ions. 

The electrolysis protection process using impressed current aluminum anodes allows uncoated and hot-dipped galvanized ferrous materials in domestic installations to be protected from corrosion. If impressed current aluminum anodes are installed in water tanks, the pipework is protected by the formation of a film without affecting the potability of the water. With domestic galvanized steel pipes, a marked retardation of the cathodic partial reaction occurs [15]. Electrolytic treatment alters the electrolytic characteristics of the water, as well as internal cathodic protection of the tank and its inserts (e.g., heating elements). The pipe protection relies on colloidal chemical processes and is applied only to new installations and not to old ones already attacked by corrosion. 

Inhibitors are materials that reduce either one or both of the partial corrosion reactions as in Fig. 2-5. Anodic or cathodic inhibitors inhibit the anodic or cathodic reaction respectively so that the rest potential becomes either more positive or more negative. Most inhibitors, however, inhibit the anodic partial reaction. This is because the transfer of metal ions can be more easily restricted than that of electrons. 

Figures 1.27a to d show how the Evans diagram can be used to illustrate how the rate may be controlled by either the polarisation of one or both of the partial reactions (cathodic, anodic or mixed control) constituting corrosion reaction, or by the resistivity of the solution or films on the metal surface (resistance control). Figures 1. lie and/illustrate how kinetic factors may be more significant than the thermodynamic tendency ( , u) and how provides no information on the corrosion rate.

Partial Reactions anodic reaction (reactions) and cathodic reaction (reactions) constituting a single exchange process or a corrosion reaction. 

Paunovic [23] and Saito [24] first advanced the notion that an electroless deposition process could be modeled using a simple electrochemical approach. They reasoned that the potential of a surface undergoing electroless deposition could be regarded as a mixed potential intermediate in value between the potentials of its constituent anodic and cathodic partial reactions. These authors employed the mixed potential concept of corrosion reactions first outlined in a systematic manner by Wagner and... 

An electrochemical model for the process of electroless metal deposition was suggested by Paunovic (10) and Saito (8) on the basis of the Wagner-Traud (1) mixed-potential theory of corrosion processes. According to the mixed-potential theory of electroless deposition, the overall reaction given by Eq. (8.2) can be decomposed into one reduction reaction, the cathodic partial reaction. 

A comparison of the results using this method and the rate of electroless copper deposition determined gravimetrically shows that the best results are obtained with the Le Roy equation applied to the polarization data in the anodic range. It is interesting to note that here, in the metal deposition as in the corrosion (9), the partial reaction, which does not involve destruction or building of a crystal lattice of metal substrate, gives better results (this is hardly surprising, of course). 

Relationships of other type are observed in the case where both the conjugated reactions proceed through the same band (Fig. 13b). For example, the cathodic reaction (42b) can take place with the participation of valence electrons rather than conduction electrons, as was assumed above. Thus, reduction of an oxidizer leads to the injection of holes into the semiconductor, which are used then in the anodic reaction of semiconductor oxidation. In other words, the cathodic partial reaction provides the anodic partial reaction with free carriers of an appropriate type, so that in this case corrosion kinetics is not limited by the supply of holes from the bulk of a semiconductor to its surface. Here the conjugated reactions are in no way independent ones. 

Thus, nonequilibrium electrons and holes generated by light in a corroding semiconductor are consumed to accelerate the corresponding partial reactions. Simultaneous disappearance of these carriers in the course of photocorrosion is similar, from the formal point of view, to surface recombination. This gives every reason to speak about such processes as electrochemical recombination (Belyakov et ai, 1976). If the dark corrosion rate and equilibrium concentration of minority carriers are known, the rate of electrochemical recombination can be calculated. 

Thermodynamic conditions needed for an electrode reaction, including the partial reaction of corrosion, to proceed can be written for the above-considered anodic and cathodic reactions, respectively, in the form [cf. Eq. (7)]... 

Though processes occurring under photopassivation have not so far been understood in detail, they may be related with certainty (Izidinov, 1979) to the acceleration, under illumination, of one of the two conjugated reactions, which constitute the overall process of electrochemical corrosion. Depending on the initial state of corroding silicon, either the anodic (at the active surface) or the cathodic (at the passive surface) partial reaction is accelerated. This leads to the shift of the potential, and the system jumps over the maximum of the polarization curve from one stable state to the other. 

Active anticorrosive pigments inhibit one or both of the two electrochemical partial reactions. The protective action is located at the interface between the substrate and the primer. Water that has diffused into the binder dissolves soluble anticorrosive components (e.g., phosphate, borate, or organic anions) out of the pigments and transports them to the metal surface where they react and stop corrosion. The oxide film already present on the iron is thereby strengthened and sometimes chemically modified. Any damaged areas are repaired with the aid of the active substance. Inhibition by formation of a protective film is the most important mode of action of the commoner anticorrosive pigments. 

Three anodic partial reactions are considered active dissolution of two metals M and M with different kinetics in the absence of their ions in bulk solution and decomposition of water with the evolution of oxygen. The kinetics of the latter process is so slow on most corroding metals that only at very negative potentials can oxygen present in the solution be electroreduced and this eventually becomes limited by mass transport due to the limited solubility of oxygen in water. At even more negative potentials, hydrogen evolution takes place on the electrode surface. The cathodic reduction of some metal ions present on the electrode surface as a consequence of corrosion is also considered in Fig. 13(b). 

Chromates are excellent inhibitors of oxygen reduction in near neutral and alkaline solutions. In these environments, they can stifle corrosion by suppressing this cathodic partial reaction. The inhibition mechanism appears to involve reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) at a metal surface and formation of Cr(III)-0-substrate metal bonds (38). This surface complex is likely to be substitutionally inert and a good blocker of oxygen reduction sites, as suggested by the exceedingly small water exchange rate constant for the first coordination sphere of Cr3+ (39). 

Corrosion inhibitor - corrosion inhibitors are chemicals which are added to the electrolyte or a gas phase (gas phase inhibitors) which slow down the - kinetics of the corrosion process. Both partial reactions of the corrosion process may be inhibited, the anodic metal dissolution and/or the cathodic reduction of a redox-system [i]. In many cases organic chemicals or compounds after their reaction in solution are adsorbed at the metal surface and block the reactive centers. They may also form layers with metal cations, thus growing a protective film at the surface like anodic oxide films in case of passivity. Benzo-triazole is an example for the inhibition of copper cor-... 

We can calculate the corrosion potential and the corrosion current in a straightforward manner by writing the Tafel equation for the two partial reactions and solving for the potential at which the currents... 

The two partial reactions (2) and (3) determine the potential of electroless deposition, called mixed potential. The concept presented above is called the mixed potential theory , a term derived from a concept proposed for interpreting corrosion... 

Illumination of a semiconductor under open-circuit conditions in an etching (oxidizing) solution gives rise to corrosion even in darkness. In the simplest case where the cathodic partial reaction of a corrosion process proceeds exclusively through the conduction band and the anodic one through the valence band, the corrosion rate for specimens of any conductivity type is limited by the minority-carrier supply to the surface and is therefore low in darkness. Illumination accelerates corrosion processes. Comparison with the case considered above shows that here the chemical polarization of the semiconductor by an oxidizer introduced into the solution acts as anodic polarization. 

Further oxidation results in the formation of hydrated ferric oxide or Fe(ni) hydroxide, i.e. rust. The corrosion potential (Ec) and corrosion current (/c) for the cathodic and anodic reaction can be represented by an Evans-type polarisation diagram, Eig. 6.6. Corrosion inhibitors interfere with the anodic or the cathodic partial reaction, or with both, resulting in a reduction in the corrosion current. 

The chemical reactions that take place in corrosion processes are reduction-oxidation (redox) reactions. Such reactions require a species of material that is oxidized (the metal), and another that is reduced (the oxidizing agent). Thus the complete reaction can be divided into two partial reactions one, oxidation the other, reduction. In oxidation, the metal loses electrons. The zone in which this happens is known as the anode. In the rednction reaction, the oxidizing agent gains the electrons that have been shed by the metal, and the zone in which this happens is the cathode. 

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