Corrosion potential effects

Both molybdate and orthophosphate are excellent passivators in the presence of oxygen. Molybdate can be an effective inhibitor, especially when combined with other chemicals. Orthophosphate is not really an oxidizer per se but becomes one ia the presence of oxygen. If iron is put iato a phosphate solution without oxygen present, the corrosion potential remains active and the corrosion rate is not reduced. However, if oxygen is present, the corrosion potential iacreases ia the noble direction and the corrosion rate decreases significantly. 

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. 

Graphic estimation of the corrosion rate and corrosion potential of a metal immersed in a corrosive high-conductivity electrolyte, from the intersection of the polarisation curves for the appropriate anodic and cathodic reactions, has been proposed and explained by several authorities. These polarisation curves can be further used to illustrate the effect of imposing additional anodic or cathodic potentials on to a corroding metal (see also Sections 1.4 and 10.1). 

It is hardly surprising that the preparation of surfaces of plain specimens for stress-corrosion tests can sometimes exert a marked influence upon results. Heat treatments carried out on specimens after their preparation is otherwise completed can produce barely perceptible changes in surface composition, e.g. decarburisation of steels or dezincification of brasses, that promote quite dramatic changes in stress-corrosion resistance. Similarly, oxide films, especially if formed at high temperatures during heat treatment or working, may influence results, especially through their effects upon the corrosion potential. 

Both silicon and aluminium are added to zinc to control the adverse effects of iron. The former forms a ferro-silicon dross (which may be removed during casting). Aluminium forms an intermetallic compound which is less active as a cathode than FeZn,] . Similarly in aluminium and magnesium alloys, manganese is added to control the iron . Thus in aluminium alloys for example, the cathodic activity of, FeAl, is avoided by transformation of FeAlj to (Fe, Mn)Al/. This material is believed to have a corrosion potential close to that of the matrix and is, therefore, unable to produce significant cathodic activity . 

Although aluminium is a base metal, it spontaneously forms a highly protective oxide film in most aqueous environments, i.e. it passivates. In consequence, it has a relatively noble corrosion potential and is then unable to act as an anode to steel. Low level mercury, indium or tin additions have been shown to be effective in lowering (i.e. making more negative) the potential of the aluminium they act as activators (depassivators). Each element has been shown to be more effective with the simultaneous addition of zinc . Zinc additions of up to 5% lower the anode operating potential, but above this level no benefit is gained . Below 0 9 7o zinc there is little influence on the performance of aluminium anodes . Table 10.10 lists a number of the more common commercial alloys. 

The effects of adsorbed inhibitors on the individual electrode reactions of corrosion may be determined from the effects on the anodic and cathodic polarisation curves of the corroding metaP . A displacement of the polarisation curve without a change in the Tafel slope in the presence of the inhibitor indicates that the adsorbed inhibitor acts by blocking active sites so that reaction cannot occur, rather than by affecting the mechanism of the reaction. An increase in the Tafel slope of the polarisation curve due to the inhibitor indicates that the inhibitor acts by affecting the mechanism of the reaction. However, the determination of the Tafel slope will often require the metal to be polarised under conditions of current density and potential which are far removed from those of normal corrosion. This may result in differences in the adsorption and mechanistic effects of inhibitors at polarised metals compared to naturally corroding metals . Thus the interpretation of the effects of inhibitors at the corrosion potential from applied current-potential polarisation curves, as usually measured, may not be conclusive. This difficulty can be overcome in part by the use of rapid polarisation methods . A better procedure is the determination of true polarisation curves near the corrosion potential by simultaneous measurements of applied current, corrosion rate (equivalent to the true anodic current) and potential. However, this method is rather laborious and has been little used. 

Quite separately, the results of a properly controlled trial were published in a 1974 paper entitled Electrostatic Descaler Testing an Evaluation (Meckler, M., Heating/Piping/Air Conditioning, Reinhold Publishing Co.). This paper concluded that the test descaler was not effective in preventing scale deposition, and we were unable to detect any measurable reduction in corrosion potentials. ... 

Do employees understand the effect of moisture on the corrosive potential of chlorine/sulfur dioxide ... 

The most striking results were obtained with aehromatedZn-Fe alloy (0.3% Fe). It was confirmed that the particularly good corrosion resistance of this alloy is due to the properties of the chromating layer,which remained firmly attached to the metal surface until nearly all of the zinc alloy had been dissolved. This feature rules out chunk effects, so that a shift in the ratio of EC to CMT measurements from a little less than one to one half (over a long time and accompanied by an increase in corrosion potential by 120 mV) could best be explained as a result of a shift in... 

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