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EIS study on the corrosion behavior of rusted carbon steel in 3% NaCl solution
Jiayuan Hu Shun-an Cao Jianli Xie
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To cite this document:
Jiayuan Hu Shun-an Cao Jianli Xie, (2013),"EIS study on the corrosion behavior of rusted carbon steel in 3% NaCl solution",
Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 60 Iss 2 pp. 100 - 105
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00035591311308074
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Jianli Xie
1. Introduction
Carbon steel is widely used in marine environments. Because
the main salt of seawater is NaCl, 3% NaCl solution prepared
from deionized water is often used as artificial seawater to
research the corrosion behavior of carbon steel and choose
seawater corrosion inhibitors (Osorio et al., 2009; Abdallah
et al., 2006). Hence, 3% NaCl solution has become one of the
most commonly used of corrosion media.
A rust layer is formed easily on metal surfaces in corrosion
media and the corrosion of carbon steel under a rust
layer is the most common and important form of corrosion
(Zou et al., 2010). However, few researches have focused on
the corrosion process of rusted carbon steel in 3% NaCl
solution. When 3% NaCl solution is used to simulate
seawater to study the corrosion characteristics of carbon
steel and to select corrosion inhibitors, the corrosion
behavior of carbon steel will inevitably be affected by the
rust layer. Therefore, studying the corrosion process of
rusted carbon steel in 3% NaCl solution can provide more
accurate data and is more representative of actual project
situations.
In this investigation, the corrosion behavior of rusted
carbon steel in 3% NaCl solution was studied by means of
2. Experimental procedure
2.1 Materials and solutions
The material under test was Q235A carbon steel, whose main
constituents were (in wt.%): C 0.10, Si 0.18, Mn 0.30, S 0.02,
P 0.02, and Fe balance. The dimensions of the test specimens
were 40 mm 13 mm 2 mm. All specimens were polished
through different grades of emery papers, and then scrubbed
with anhydrous ethyl alcohol and acetone. After that, the
specimens were put into a dryer and their size and weight
were measured before use.
The experimental medium was 3% NaCl solution prepared
from deionized water and reagent grade NaCl.
2.2 Rotary coupon test
Test specimens were suspended on a rotary coupon rack and
immersed in 3% NaCl solution. The rotary coupon rack had
12 rotating bars which moved clockwise with a speed between
45 and 180 rpm. The specimens were suspended at the
bottom of the bars and rotated in the NaCl solutions. Each
group of tests utilized 2 L NaCl solution and three duplicate
specimens. The experimental conditions were: the rotation
speed of the coupon rack was 95 rpm; the solution
temperature was set at 308C.
After exposure, the rust layers on metal surface were
collected, and then the specimens were dried and weighed.
The corrosion rate of the carbon steel was calculated from the
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100
8:76 W 0 2 W 1
rSt
3.0
Corrosion rate/(mmy1)
2.5
2.0
1.5
200
400
600
800
1,000
t/h
3. Results
3.1 Corrosion rate of carbon steel
12 different immersion times were used for the rotary
coupon test for specimens;, i.e. 2, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, 120, 168,
240, 360, 480 and 720 h. Experimental results were shown
in Figure 1.
The trace shown in Figure 1 shows that the corrosion rate
of carbon steel decreased sharply after initial immersion, and
stabilized subsequently at about 1.5 mm y2 1. The high rate
of corrosion during initial immersion indicates that the
corrosion process of carbon steel was enhanced significantly
by the chloride ions (Zheng and Yang, 2010). With increasing
immersion time, the rust layer forms on the metal surface and
then the promoting effect of the chloride ions is suppressed.
The corrosion rate of rusted carbon steel in 3% NaCl solution
reached 1.5 mm y2 1 which was close to the corrosion rate of
carbon steel determined by the limiting diffusion rate of oxygen
in water (Hu et al., 2012). Therefore, it can be inferred that the
rust layer can facilitate the corrosion process.
By observing the morphology of the rust layer, it was found
that the rust consisted of a black inner layer and a yellow outer
layer. The outer rust layer was very thin and the inner rust
layer was much thicker.
1.0
30
a
1,020
b
887 791
1,160
743
g -FeOOH
20
571
1,021
1,400
1,200
Fe3O4
1,000
800
s /cm1
101
473
a -FeOOH
10
568
600
400
(a)
(b)
Notes: (a) Without rust layer; (b) with rust layer covered; where
Rs resistance of solution; Rt transfer resistance;
Cd capacitance of the electric double layer; Zd diffusion
impedance
rate of rusted carbon steel was very high. Consequently, it could
be inferred that the corrosion rate of carbon steel in 3% NaCl
solution was determined by the limiting diffusion rate of
oxygen. Hence, the equivalent circuit shown in Figure 4(b) was
proposed for rusted electrodes. The fitting results proved that
these equivalent circuits were suitable, and the analytical results
were summarized in Table I.
As shown in Table I, the value of transfer resistance (Rt)
decreased sharply at the beginning and then trended to level
off. The change trend of Rt values showed that the rust layer
could promote the corrosion process of carbon steel
significantly at the beginning, and then the corrosion rate of
the steel would stabilize at a high value with the thickening of
rust layer.
The Rt value was large at the beginning, which was not
consistent with the results shown in Figure 1. It was found
that a high-concentration of chloride ions could promote
strongly the corrosion process of carbon steel in flowing
solution; but this enhancement effect became much smaller in
quiescent solution, so that the Rt values of electrode that were
measured in quiescent NaCl solution was large at initial
immersion. The Rt values of carbon steel in 3% NaCl solution
would decrease rapidly only after the rust layer had formed on
the electrode surface.
300
1,000
Z''/( cm2)
800
200
100
0
0
100
600
200
300
Z'/( cm2)
400
0.5 h
72 h
168 h
240 h
720 h
fitting results
400
200
0
200
400
600
Z'/( cm2)
102
t/h
Rs/(V cm2)
Rt/(V cm2)
0.5
72
168
240
360
480
720
2.64
4.73
6.13
5.16
5.89
6.42
6.12
1,813
967
60.46
78.71
39.62
52.07
46.85
0.1079
0.10896
0.08761
0.11298
0.09450
0.13182
4. Discussion
After carbon steel was immersed in NaCl solution, the
corrosion reactions could occur as follows:
Anode region:
Y 20 a2 R2 T 2
n4 F 4 A2 C 2
Fe ! Fe2 2e
O2 2H 2 O 4e ! 4OH 2
Cathode region:
6
7
4FeOH2 O2 ! 4g 2 FeOOH 2H 2 O
10
(a)
(b)
(c)
Notes: (a) Rust layer covered; (b) removal of the outer layer; (c) removal of the inner layer
103
600
Z''/( cm2)
200
Z''/( cm2)
500
400
150
100
50
0
0
50
300
100 150
Z'/( cm2)
200
200
100
0
100
200
300
Z'/(
400
500
600
cm2)
State
Rust layer
covered
Removal of the
outer layer
Removal of the
inner layer
5.12
44.86
0.14172
4.93
68.11
0.09399
3.68
1,995
i L 2nFD
Eu
RT
aFeOOH 3 aH
ln
aFe3 O4
nF
RT
ln aH
F
12
2:303RT
pH
F
14
11
C0
d
13
5. Conclusion
The corrosion behavior of carbon steel in 3% NaCl solution is
controlled by chloride ions during initial immersion and the
rust layer at the stable stage of corrosion, respectively.
Because of the promoting effect of the rust layer on the
corrosion process, the corrosion rate of rusted carbon steel
can be accelerated significantly and finally is determined by
the limiting diffusion rate of oxygen. It is probable that the
rust layer generated in all slightly acidic waters with low
alkalinity can promote corrosion of carbon steel via reduction
of g-FeOOH. Anti-corrosion measures for iron in this type of
solution should be aimed to reduce the corrosion promoting
effect of the rust layer. The NaCl solution prepared from tap
water is more suitable for the substitution of artificial seawater
than that prepared from deionized water.
References
Corresponding author
105
1. K. Zakowski, M. Narozny, M. Szocinski, K. Darowicki. 2014. Influence of water salinity on corrosion riskthe case of the
southern Baltic Sea coast. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 186, 4871-4879. [CrossRef]
2. Jiayuan Hu, Shun-an Cao, Li Yin, Yang Gao. 2014. Electrochemical study on the corrosion of rusted carbon steel in dilute NaCl
solutions. Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials 61:3, 139-145. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]