Scanning probe techniques overview

This section aims to provide an overview of major laboratory techniques that can be used in REM-based inhibitor research. Particular focus is on the analysis and understanding of difficulties and limitations in major inhibitor testing methods. Attempts are also made to discuss recently developed techniques such as the scanning probe techniques that have already been used or are expected to be useful, in REM inhibitor research. Non-scanning probe techniques that can be used in localized corrosion inhibition research such as electrochemical noise analysis and the wire beam electrode are also briefly introduced. 

Localized forms of corrosion (such as pitting, crevice, and galvanic corrosion) arise when the metal surface is not compositionally uniform and/or when there is not a uniform exposure of the metal surface to the corrosive environment [6], Such localized forms of corrosion lead to nonuniform current density distribution across the metal surface as well as nonuniform distribntions of species concentration (such as metal ions, H+, and Oj). For these localized forms of corrosion, the scanning probe techniques provide valuable spatial and temporal information not available from the surface-averaging (or global) techniques mentioned earlier. A brief review of scanning probe techniques as applied to localized corrosion studies has recently appeared [7]. We have recently prepared a very extensive review chapter for Volume 24 of Electroanalytical Chemistry A Series of Advances [8], and the reader is referred to that chapter for more in-depth discussion of the application of these techniques in corrosion research. In Section 14.2, we provide an overview of several scanning electrochemical probe techniques used in corrosion research. In Section 14.3, we describe... 

Overview of scanning probe microscopy techniques produced by Nanoscience Instruments Inc... 

Meyer, Ernst, Hans Josef Hug, and Roland Ben-newitz. Scanning Probe Microscopy The Lab on a Tip. Berlin Springer, 2004. This hook provides an excellent overview of scanning prohe microscopy before delving into more detailed discussions of the various techniques. 

It is also common for pol3rmeric compoimds to form surface regions with compositions different from the bulk material, by selective diffusion of components. This process is termed blooming when the surface component is solid, and bleeding if it is liquid. Sulfur and fatty acid blooms can inhibit adhesion in rubber laminates (3). Laser desorption mass spectroscopy has been employed to identify surface species on vulcanized rubber (4). X-ray scattering methods for the study of polymer surfaces and interfaces have been reviewed (5). Other surface analysis techniques commonly used with polymers include attenuated total reflectance (6-8), electron microprobe (9), Auger electron spectroscopy (10), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (11), and scanning probe microscopic methods (12). Overviews on polymer surface analysis have been published (13,14). 

This led to the general principle that we should include a number of so-called spatially-resolved methods. Some of these, like MRI, are very closely allied to spectroscopy but others such as diffraction experiments or scanning probe microscopy are less so, but have features in common and are frequently used in close conjunction with spectroscopy. The more peripheral subjects have, by design, not been treated in the same level of detail as the core topics. We have tried to provide an overview of as many as possible techniques and applications which are allied to spectroscopy and spectrometry or are used in association with them. We have endeavoured to ensure that the core subjects have been treated in substantial depth. No doubt there are omissions and if the reader feels we got it wrong, the editors take the blame. 

Although SVET and LEIS/LEIM are not commonly considered to be SECM, they are important scanning electrochemical probe techniques in the corrosion field, so we provide a brief overview of recent applications here. See our previous review for a more extensive discussion, including historical development, of these techniques [8]. 

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