Surface spectroscopic study of the corrosion of ultrathin57Fe-evaporated and Langmuir-Blodgett films in humid SO2 environments

Abstract

Integral conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (ICEMS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been used to carry out a comparative study of the corrosion resistance against humid SO2-aggressive environments of ultrathin 57Fe films. These films, having a thickness ≤ 2.5 nm, have been prepared by evaporation of 57Fe under vacuum and by 57Fe coating by a Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) technique on SiO2/Si wafers. The results have shown that the corrosion resistance of the evaporated films is similar to that of massive Fe. However, the LB films show a remarkably higher corrosion resistance. Thus, although the Fe films prepared by evaporation have been completely corroded after 6 h of exposure to the deleterious environment, the LB films remain unaltered even after 18 h of exposure to the same aggressive conditions. The higher corrosion resistance of the LB films appears to be related to the existence of a thin surface layer containing Si, Fe2+ and Fe3+ formed on top of the Fe metal film during the thermal treatments subsequent to the LB deposition. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.