Electrochemical tests scratch repassivation

From an engineering perspective, the repassivation potential is a more important parameter than the potential for pit nucleation. We want to know the potential below which pits will not grow. This is analogous in theory to measuring KiC or Kiscc in mechanical and SCC testing. One way to test this is to produce a completely bare surface that is dissolving rapidly, and determine at what potential it can repassivate. An easy way to do this is what may be termed an electrochemical scratch. ... 

These tests focused on the determination of a materials resistance to localized (pitting) corrosion. To accomplish this goal, three types of electrochemical experiments were conducted (cyclic polarization, electrochemical scratch, and potenti-ostatic holds) to measure several key parameters associated with pitting corrosion. These parameters were the breakdown potential, EM, the repassivation potential, Etp, and the passive current density, tpass. 

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