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Combining AFM imaging and elementally resolved spectroelectrochemistry for understanding stability and quality of passive films formed on Alloy 600
Author(s) -
Dworschak Dominik,
Bishara Marina,
Cheng HsiuWei,
Valtiner Markus
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
materials and corrosion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.487
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1521-4176
pISSN - 0947-5117
DOI - 10.1002/maco.202112984
Subject(s) - alloy , dissolution , corrosion , materials science , cyclic voltammetry , atomic force microscopy , analytical chemistry (journal) , electrochemistry , passivity , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , metallurgy , electrode , chemistry , chromatography , engineering , electrical engineering
Understanding elemental corrosion currents and visualizing corroding topographies provides a detailed insight into corrosion mechanisms at the nanoscale. Here, we develop a strategy to understand the elemental composition, corrosion resistivity, and local stability of passive materials. Specifically, we utilize a pulse voltammetry approach in a novel electrochemical atomic force microscopy (AFM) cell and complement this data by real‐time dissolution currents based on spectroelectrochemical online analysis in an inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP‐MS) flow cell. We study the oxide properties and their protective behavior when formed under different applied potentials using Alloy 600 as a model sample. Both AFM and ICP‐MS data show that passive films formed on Alloy 600 at around +0.3 to +0.4 V in neutral 1 mM NaCl solution are most stable during anodic corrosion at +1.0 V, while AFM further demonstrates that local dissolution occurs, indicating locally varying defect levels in the passive film. In combination with both techniques, our approach provides real‐time elementally resolved and localized information of passive film quality under corrosive conditions, and it may prove useful for other corroding materials.