| AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces Division | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session BI-TuP |
| Session: | Biomaterial Interfaces Poster Session with Flash presentations |
| Presenter: | Claudia Merola, Max Planck Institute for Iron Research, Germany |
| Authors: | C. Merola, Max Planck Institute for Iron Research, Germany H.-W. Cheng, Max Planck Institute for Iron Research, Germany M. Valtiner, University of Freiberg, Germany |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Understanding marine corrosion and biofouling is of central importance for designing materials for marine use that last longer and protect more effectively from biofouling. Many different types of destructive attack can occur to structures, ships and other equipment used in sea water service.
Crevice corrosion (CC), which is corrosion at an interface, still remains one of the most difficult types of corrosion to detect and to prevent. Most often CC occurs in narrow fissures where oxygen access is poor and a stagnant electrolyte solution is present. Experimentally it is a challenge to obtain in-situ information of processes in confined geometries and to establish well defined confined situations in the first place.
Here, we show how white light interferometry[1] can be utilized, for the first time, to study and monitor in situ the initial stages of the crevice corrosion process of thin layers of different metals[2] (e.g. Ni, Al, Au..) in different concentrations of NaCl solutions. Using Mica as a crevice former in an electrochemical surface apparatus allowed us to provide a deeper understanding of the initiation of the corrosion process, which also occurs at the adhesive interface of bio organism such as barnacles or mussels.
Our new approach provides a real-time view of the initial corrosion of confined surfaces, and hence may contribute to a deeper general understanding, and ultimately prevention, of localized corrosion and corrosion underneath biofoulers.
[1]J. Israelachvili et al., Recent advances in the surface forces apparatus (SFA) technique. Reports on Progress in Physics 73, 036601 (2010).
[2] B. R. Shrestha et al., Real-Time Monitoring of Aluminum Crevice Corrosion and Its Inhibition by Vanadates with Multiple Beam Interferometry in a Surface Forces Apparatus. Journal of the Electrochemical Society 162, C327 (2015, 2015).