A study of the initial stages of iron passivation in neutral solutions using the quartz crystal resonator technique

Abstract

The initial period of growth of a passive film of iron in borate solutions (pH 7.4 and 6.7) is studied using the quartz crystal resonator technique (EQSN) and pulsed chronoamperometry. Dependences of the surface layer thickness on time are obtained at the metal passivation and prepassivation potentials. Regions corresponding to different stages of passive layer formation are found in anodic current transients, which allowed the ambiguous effect of atomic hydrogen on kinetics of hydrogenated iron dissolution to be explained. It is shown that the iron hydrogenation promoter prevents formation of a primary passive film by accelerating iron dissolution at prepassivation potentials.