Corrosion of carbon steel in seashore salty soils containing 10, 20, and 34 wt% (saturated) water was investigated. The corrosion rate was measured and corrosion products were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy. It was found that carbon steel in the soil with 10 wt% water content had the largest corrosion rate and the corrosion was dominated by localized corrosion. The corrosion rate drops dramatically and turns to be general corrosion with increase of water content. The corrosion products in the soil with 20 and 34 wt% water content are mainly composed of α-FeOOH, while in the soil with 10 wt% water content, the products show a delaminated structure of two layers with the inner layer mainly consisting of α-FeOOH and the outer layer composed of Fe 2 O 3 and Fe 3 O 4 .

The electrochemical corrosion characteristics of carbon steel in a salty soil at different temperatures were studied by measurements and analyses of potentiodynamic polarization curves, linear polarization resistance and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results showed that the mass-transfer of dissolved oxygen plays an essential role in carbon steel corrosion, and the whole corrosion process is mix-controlled by both activation and masstransfer steps. Passivity can be developed on carbon steel in the soil at low temperatures. With the increase of temperature, the passive current density increases and the passive potential range decreases. When temperature is elevated to a certain value, 50°C in this system, passivity cannot be maintained and the steel is dominated by an active dissolution status. Anodic Tafel slope decreases continuously with the increase in temperature, which is mainly due to the enhanced electrode reaction rate at an elevated temperature. Simultaneously, cathodic Tafel slope increases with temperature continuously due to the decrease of the solubility of dissolved oxygen in soil. Since the diffusion activation energy is generally much smaller than the reaction activation energy, the effect of temperature on diffusion is far less than that on electrode reaction rate.