Corrosion behavior of iron thin film in deaerated phosphate solutions by an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance

The corrosion rates of iron thin film in deaerated phosphate solutions were measured by an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance as a function of solution pH or phosphorus concentration in solutions. The dependences of corrosion rate and corrosion potential on solution pH and phosphorus concentration have suggested that the corrosion mechanism changes in the vicinity of pH 5 and H2PO4− contributes to both anodic dissolution of iron and hydrogen evolution. The corrosion mechanism which contains iron–phosphate–hydroxide complex ion as an adsorbed intermediate was proposed to explain the experimental results.