Corrosion of Metals and Alloys
graduate students: Marwa, Asmaa, Yasser and Mohamed
Corrosion can be defined as the deterioration of a material’s properties due to its interaction with its environment. The consequences of corrosion are many and varied and the effects of these on the safe, reliable and efficient operation of equipment or structures are often more serious than the simple loss of a mass of metal. Not only does it affect the economy but also the environment and human health due to the hazardous spills of corroded materials and the sudden failure of structures. Owing to the tremendous damage it can cause, corrosion has and continues to be the subject of extensive study especially with a view to its minimization at acceptable expense—economic and environmental.
Metal alloys, such as aluminum and carbon steel, continue to be vitally important to society. They have had a major influence on our lives, the cars we drive, the buildings we work in, the homes in which we live and countless other facets in between. We are, thus, interested in the study of the corrosion behavior and protection of these alloys. We are using various protective coatings in our lab such as conducting polymers, sol-gel films and organic coatings and inhibitors.
Many corrosion phenomena can be explained in terms of electrochemical reactions. It follows, then, that electrochemical techniques can be used to study these phenomena. Measurements of current-potential relations under carefully controlled conditions can yield information on corrosion rates, coatings and films, passivity, pitting tendencies and other important data. Our research in AML involves the design of electrochemical experiments to test the corrosion behavior of bare (unprotected) and protected alloys. We use several electrochemical techniques such as cyclic polarization, linear polarization, Tafel polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. In addition, surface and spectroscopic techniques are used to characterize the coatings and to support our results.
Selected Publications:
1. Electropolymerization and characterization of conducting polymers over active solid surfaces, Masters’ Thesis, Mohamed Farouk, Cairo University, (2008).
2. Corrosion Inhibition Characteristics of Plasma Polymerized Films on Aluminum, F.J. Boerio, G.L. Fan, and Ahmed Galal, Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting of the Adhesion Society, Science TP967, A483, 363-365, (2001).
3. Intergranular Corrosion of Copper in the Presence of Benzotriazole, Aboubakr M. Abdullah, Faiza M. Alkharafi and Badr G. Ateya, Scripta Mater., 54, 1673 (2006). Full Article
4. Extraordinary Effects of Benzotriazole and Sulfide Ions on the Corrosion of Copper, Faiza M. Al-kharafi, Aboubakr M. Abdullah and Badr G. Ateya, Electrochem. Solid St., 9, B19 (2006). Full Article
5. The Role of Oxygen on The Stability of Crevice Corrosion, M. K. Sawford, B. G. Ateya, A. M. Abdullah, H. W. Pickering, J. Electrochem. Soc., 149, B198-B205 (2002). Full Article
6. The Localized Corrosion of Al 6xxx Alloys, B. A. Shaw, M. M. McCosby, A. M. Abdullah and H. W. Pickering, JOM, 53, 42 (2001). Full Article
