Measuring electrochemical noise of a single working electrode for assessing corrosion resistance of polymer coated metals

Electrochemical noise measurement (ENM) of the spontaneous perturbation of current and potential of coated samples immersed in electrolyte determines the resistance of the coating system. ENM offers several advantages: the measurement is relatively simple to make, it is completely non-interfering with the natural process occurring on the surface and the data are simple to interpret. The original standard arrangement for ENM using a pair of samples has limitations for practical applications because two separate and nominally identical working electrodes are needed and this requirement is very hard (if not impossible) to fulfil in on-site application. This paper describes an alternative approach for electrochemical noise measurement to measure the noise resistance (Rn) of protective coatings based on use of just one working electrode. In this so-called “Single Cell” (SC) arrangement the electrochemical noise current and electrochemical noise potential between the working electrode and a non-noisy reference electrode is measured separately and consecutively. This new approach has been tested for a range of coating resistances. Also, the coating's resistance has been measured using DC resistance and EIS (at low frequency) and the results were compared with the Rn obtained from the single cell (SC) set up.