Recent insights in corrosion science from atomic spectroelectrochemistry

Abstract

AbstractA fundamental understanding of corrosion mechanisms is the key to developing suitable corrosion protection approaches, and for the prediction of service life of metallic structures. However, conventional corrosion testing methods such as mass loss and electrochemical testing do not guarantee estimation of "true" corrosion rate and often mask the underlying mechanisms, due to either low sensitivity or a lack of element‐resolved information. Relatively recent work in corrosion science has led to the development of a new class of corrosion testing approaches, namely atomic spectroelectrochemistry; whereby direct insight of dissolution and corrosion mechanisms can be obtained during electrochemical testing. Atomic spectroelectrochemistry provides real‐time and element resolved dissolution rate of material via coupling electrochemical flow cell with inductively coupled plasma – atomic spectroscopy. This concise review discusses the basic working principle of atomic spectroelectrochemistry and its recent applications in corrosion science to understand the true underlying corrosion mechanisms of a range of metallic materials.