Steel Surface Passivation at a Typical Ambient Condition: Atomistic Modeling and X-ray Diffraction/Reflectivity Analyses

Abstract

Steel corrosion has been observed to be a destructive process that depletes the natural resource of iron and causes expensive infrastructure deterioration leading to impaired living environment and social economy [1–3]. One phenomenal example of steel corrosion is the corrosion of reinforcement in concrete structures, of which the destructive effects include the loss of steel, cracking/ spalling of concrete caused by accumulated corrosion products at anodic sites, and eventually the failure of structure [4, 5]. In the state-of-the-art of steel corrosion, there exist a series of fundamental issues that are not clearly understood in spite of the abundant knowledge developed in the science of electrochemistry. Without a clear understanding of these issues, the effective control of steel corrosion cannot be satisfactorily achieved. Among the fundamental issues, the atomic-level mechanism of iron oxidation and the growth of oxidation products on steel surface are arguably the most well-known one. One direct consequence of missing a clear picture of these mechanisms is the lack of fundamental information in the formation and destruction of protective film on steel surface. Within this context, a research study was recently launched aiming at exploring the atomic-scale mechanism of iron oxidation on steel surface.