Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
- 2022 (2) (entfernen)
Dokumenttyp
Sprache
- Englisch (2) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Gel electrolytes (2) (entfernen)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
Determination of the corrosion product layer resistance on zinc samples by using gel electrolytes
(2022)
Crash barriers, railings, lamp posts, waste glass containers - these are just a few of the many examples of galvanized surfaces. They withstand wind and weather for decades, which is possible thanks to a protective layer made of corrosion products. When designing the atmospheric durability of galvanized components, a linear corrosion loss is assumed. In the past 30 years, however, the surrounding atmosphere has changed a lot. Due to the restriction of sulfur exhaust air, acid rain completely disappeared in Europe and Germany, which has a direct influence on the type and protective effect of the corrosion products. Under the influence of current atmospheric conditions, zinc layers are significantly more resistant and no longer show any linear corrosion loss. The established test methods cannot correctly map this change in neither short-term nor long-term tests and thus provide incorrect results. In order to solve this problem, a new measurement method was developed at BAM that can assess the protective effect of the formed surface layers in a minimally invasive manner without damaging the sample and in short test times. For this new method, gel electrolytes are used and the so-called corrosion product layer resistance RL, which is made up of various surface resistances, is measured electrochemically. As a single measurement, the surface layer resistance can provide information about the existing corrosion protection, while time-dependent measurements assess the stability of the layer. Thus, it is possible again to evaluate the corrosion protection layer. Furthermore, this method can also be used for field measurements on real components.
Novel agar-based test electrolytes are used to perform electrochemical corrosion investigations on ZnFe and ZnNi binary as well as ZnFeMo ternary zinc coatings. The objectives of the electrochemical investigations include the characterization of the corrosion behavior, the description of the protective effect of the coatings as well as the investigation of the layer formation and degradation under artificial aging. ZnFe and ZnFeMo coatings are applied with varying iron content as well as an additional passivation layer, respectively, to study the effect on corrosion resistance. The results show that the protective effect of the coatings is not negatively influenced by different iron contents or the addition of molybdenum. Additional passivation of the ZnFe-containing coatings by means of a passivating agent leads to a significant improvement in the protective effect. Artificial aging leads to slight degradation of the additional passivation layer whereas coatings without post-treatment enhance their protective effect by the formation of corrosion product layers.