Electrochemical corrosion of silicon carbide ceramics

Abstract

Recently, SiC-based ceramics have been found to exhibit corrosion damage patterns, which can only be explained by electrochemical processes. Therefore, the current work focusses on the electrochemical test procedures to determine the corrosion behaviour of solid state sintered silicon carbide (SSiC) ceramics in acidic and alkaline media. The corrosion current densities have been determined from linear voltammetric scans. At anodic polarization potentials, electrochemically induced etching patterns were observed in alkaline solution. The formation of pores and crevices during electrochemical oxidation in acidic solution could be monitored by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) in addition to transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Impedance spectra measured after anodic polarization could be described by the assumption of a pore model equivalent circuit.