Corrosion challenges towards a sustainable society

Abstract

A global transition towards more sustainable, affordable and reliable energy systems is being stimulated by the Paris Agreement and the United Nation's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This poses a challenge for the corrosion industry, as building climate-resilient energy systems and infrastructures brings with it a long-term direction, so as a result the long-term behaviour of structural materials (mainly metals and alloys) becomes a major prospect. With this in mind "Corrosion Challenges Towards a Sustainable Society" presents a series of cases showing the importance of corrosion protection of metals and alloys in the development of energy production to further understand the science of corrosion, and bring the need for research and the consequences of corrosion into public and political focus. This includes emphasis on the limitation of greenhouse gas emissions, on the lifetime of infrastructures, implants, cultural heritage artefacts, and a variety of other topics.

The Oxygen Evolution Reaction Drives Passivity Breakdown for Ni–Cr–Mo Alloys

“…The main limiting factor of metallic materials is material degradation due to corrosion in aqueous media, [1] resulting in global annual costs of over 3% of industrialized nations' gross domestic product, [2,3] causing a significant environmental footprint and even disasters. [4,5] However, many metals and alloys exhibit a phenomenon, so-called passivity, due to the spontaneous formation of a few nanometer-thin and continuous passive oxide film on the surface, which greatly reduces the corrosion rate so that the material can be used in corrosive environments for extended periods of time. [1] Passivity has been described by the point defect model (PDM), which considers the electrochemical and chemical reactions at the metal/oxide and oxide/electrolyte interfaces, the generation and annihilation of point defects, and the ionic transport across the oxide film.…”

Reflective microscopy for mechanistic insights in corrosion research

“…The urgent need of increased energy efficiency and durability of materials is pushing forward the development of novel metal materials of increased complexity. [1,2] This development is often based on the idea of mixing the multiple components with the formation of local structural and compositional inhomogeneities (intermetallic particles, inclusions, grains, and grain boundaries simply called single entities (SE) herein). [2][3][4] Generally, the presence of SE can be beneficial for improving its mechanical, electrical, catalytic, etc.…”

Valuable metal recycling from thin film CIGS solar cells by leaching under mild conditions

“…This seems also be the case for the recovery of Ag, but specific details about the leaching conditions are also often omitted in the studies. At an industrial scale, these harsh leaching conditions are challenging both from a practical and economical perspective (corrosion, costly equipment, cost of chemicals), but also from a regulatory, safety and environmental one [34][35][36].…”