Science Materials Science & Engineering

Corrosion

orange pattern

Corrosion is defined as the destructive and unintentional degradation of a material caused by its environment.

Unfortunately for metals almost all environments can cause corrosion to some degree, since the corroded state is the more stable state.

Introduction

Corrosion is defined as the destructive and unintentional degradation of a material caused by its environment.

Dry and wet corrosion

Dry corrosion or oxidation occurs when oxygen in the air reacts with metal without the presence of a liquid.

Electrochemistry

For the electrons that are formed at the anode to move to the cathode there must be a path that they can follow. This usually means a physical contact between the anode and the cathode.

Types of corrosion

A common type of corrosion is known as galvanic corrosion. Galvanic corrosion occurs when two different metals are connected in an electrolyte and one metal corrodes in protection of the other.

Corrosion Protection

As we have seen, corrosion is a wide ranging problem that is obviously best considered during the design stage.