Abstract
Carbon steel corrodes severely in presence of sodium chloride and it needs additional protection to be used in marine environments. This work investigates the possibility of using a layer of stearic acid as protection for carbon steel. Stearic acid was applied on the steel by two types of treatments: chemical preparation - by immersion of a steel sample in the SA solution and electrochemical preparation – by imposing a corresponding potential to the system. The results have shown that although both treatments result in obtaining an ordered aliphatic monolayer and both treatments increase the hydrophobicity of the surface, protection that the electrochemical preparation offers is stable in time, while the protection the chemical preparation offers is not.
Highlights
C ARBON steels corrode uniformly in a wide variety of environments, yet they are cost-effective compared to stainless steel
A corrosion cell was used for the electrochemical measurements and the surface of the samples exposed to the electrolyte was 1 cm2
OPTIMAL CONCENTRATION DETERMINATION The influence of Stearic acid (SA) concentration on monolayer protective properties was examined by polarization measurements in wide potential range (± 0.15 V)
Summary
C ARBON steels corrode uniformly in a wide variety of environments, yet they are cost-effective compared to stainless steel. The dissolution of a protected carbon steel construction leads to its decay, as well as environmental pollution. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are ordered molecular assemblies formed by chemisorption of organic molecules onto the substrate surface. Such layers have many advantages, among which: formation on rough, irregular and inner surfaces; the possibility of recovering a damaged SAM in situ if in the immediate vicinity appropriate molecules are present; a monolayer is enough to change the properties of a very large surface; cost-effectiveness since small amounts of material are needed to cover very large areas; and low environmental pollution.[1,2]
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