An investigation of cathodic oxygen reduction beneath an intact organic coating on mild steel and its relevance to cathodic disbonding

An epoxy-coated mild steel panel was coupled with bare mild steel to characterise the cathodic reaction underneath the paint and study the short term change in properties of the coating under cathodic polarisation. It showed that the cathodic reaction obeys the Tafel law and is not controlled by either the high coating resistance or oxygen transport through the coating.