The Characterization of Some Steel Corrosion Products by FT-IR Spectroscopy

Abstract

The present work is a continuation of our precedent studies [1, 2] as an attempt to characterize the corrosion products formed on the carbon steel (OL 37) exposed to natural and artificial environments, both having high relative humidity and chloride content. Samples of steel sheets of 200 . 100 . 2 mm dimension were prepared using abrasive blasting with specific requirements. As natural and artificial environment, a marine experiment site, respectively a salt spray test with specific exposure conditions, were used. Iron oxyhydroxides and oxides are typical constituents of rust, generated by the corrosion of steel surface in contact with aqueous phase [3, 4]. The phase composition of the rust depends on the physic-chemical factors from the environment such as: type of steel, time of exposure, electrolyte composition, pH and temperature [5, 6]. The composition and structure of carbon steel corrosion products for the two situations (accelerated lab and real conditions) were studied comparatively using an adequate FT-IR spectroscopy method and KBr pellets technique. The FT-IR spectrometer operates with OPUS program.