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Mesh-capped probe design for direct pH measurements at an actively corroding metal surface

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Abstract

Quantitative characterization of surface reaction species improves understanding of reaction mechanisms, especially for heterogeneous reactions such as in corrosion and electrolysis. A universal mesh-capped surface pH probe was developed in order to investigate surface proton concentrations for aqueous metal dissolution/deposition reactions. This technique can be generally applied to characterize the surface pH either for bare metal reactions or metals corroding beneath a corrosion product film. Measurements with the new probe design have shown a good degree of reproducibility. The surface pH measurements during corrosion of mild steel have shown that a higher surface pH is achieved at the steel surface as compared with that of the bulk solution, just as predicted from theory. Chemical buffering effects on surface pH were observed during corrosion by contrasting the measurements obtained in HCl deaerated solutions with those containing CO2, i.e., carbonic acid (H2CO3) and acetic acid (CH3COOH/HAc) solutions. It was found that the surface pH was mainly controlled by the water chemistry and chemical buffer capacity. The surface pH is affected by the deposited corrosion scale porosity. A higher deviation of surface pH compared to the bulk value was observed for more dense layers with lower porosity.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Dan Cain, lab technician, for his assistance in fabrication of the surface pH probe. Nicolas Jauseau, and Jin Huang, both PhD students from ICMT, are acknowledged for their help on figure preparation. Jiabin Han expresses his appreciation to postdoctoral researcher Xiu Jiang and PhD student Hui Li for their help in recording the data. The authors also appreciate the financial support from the Corrosion Center Joint Industry Project advisory board members, namely Baker Petrolite, BG Group, BP, Champion Technologies, Chevron, Clariant, Columbia Gas Transmission, ConocoPhillips, Encana, Eni, ExxonMobil, INPEX, IONIK Consulting, MI Production Chemicals, Nalco, Occidental Oil Company, Petronas, Petrobras, PTTEP, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Tenaris and Total.

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  1. Jiabin Han

    Present address: Earth and Environmental Sciences Division (EES), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology, Ohio University, 342 West State Street, Athens, OH, 45701, USA

    Jiabin Han, Bruce N. Brown, David Young & Srdjan Nešić

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  1. Jiabin Han
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  2. Bruce N. Brown
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  3. David Young
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  4. Srdjan Nešić
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Correspondence to Srdjan Nešić.

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Han, J., Brown, B.N., Young, D. et al. Mesh-capped probe design for direct pH measurements at an actively corroding metal surface. J Appl Electrochem 40, 683–690 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-009-0043-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-009-0043-8

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