An integral non-intrusive electrochemical and in-situ optical technique for the study of the effectiveness of corrosion inhibition

Abstract

This work investigates an integrated analysis of in-situ optical data and time-frequency information from electrochemical potential noise (EPN) data to study the effectiveness and durability of an anodic and cathodic corrosion inhibitor. Two different corrosion inhibiting species, cerium(III) (Ce(III)) and phytic acid (PHA), are tested on aluminum alloy AA2024-T3. Corrosion of AA2024-T3 serves as a negative reference. Time-frequency analysis of EPN data provides a direct insight in the kinetics of the electrochemical processes related to different types of corrosion and/or inhibitor activity over time. The simultaneous, in-situ optical technique allows visualizing and quantifying the surface changes associated with the electrochemical signals. Both Ce(III) and PHA were not capable to inhibit corrosion to a large extent, as re-immersion led to electrochemical (corrosion) activity for both inhibitors. Time-variant changes between corrosion, inhibitor activity, inhibited state and re-activation can effectively be discriminated from each other.