Determination of electrode kinetics by corrosion potential measurements: Zinc corrosion by bromine

Abstract

An attractive way of determining the electrode kinetics of very fast dissolution reactions is that of measuring the corrosion potential in flowing solutions. This study analyses a critical aspect of the corrosion potential method, i.e., the effect of nonuniform corrosion distribution, which is very common in flow systems. The analysis is then applied to experimental data for zinc dissolution by dissolved bromine, obtained at a rotating hemispherical electrode (RHE). It is shown that in this case the current distribution effect is minor. However, the results also indicate that the kinetics of this corrosion system are not of the classical Butler-Volmer type. This is explained by the presence of a chemical reaction path in parallel with the electrochemical path. This unconventional corrosion mechanism is verified by a set of experiments in which zones of zinc deposition and dissolution at a RHE are identified in quantitative agreement with model predictions. The practical implications for the design of zinc/bromine batteries are discussed.