An investigation on general corrosion and pitting of iron with the in-line digital holography

In the anodic processes of the iron electrode in both neutral and acidic solutions, general corrosion and pitting dynamical processes in the presence of chloride ions were observed in situ with the in-line digital holography. The dynamic processes such as formation and dissolution of the passive film, initiation and propagation of pitting have been studied. During the general corrosion, not only is the temporal structure in order, evidenced by the regular change of current with time, but also the spatial structure, indicated by the uniform fringes in the holograms at the electrode/electrolyte interface. However, during the pitting processes, the order of the spatial structure is destroyed, which is indicated by the wrinkled fringes in the holograms; the temporal order is broken as well evidenced by the irregular change of current with time. The experimental result shows that there is synergistic effect between H+ and Cl− on both the initiation stage and the propagation stage. With the presence of chloride ions, pitting occurs much more easily in acidic solution than in neutral solution.