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Science 20 August 2004:
Vol. 305. no. 5687, pp. 1133 - 1136
DOI: 10.1126/science.1101358
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Reports

Sudden Onset of Pitting Corrosion on Stainless Steel as a Critical Phenomenon

C. Punckt,1 M. Bölscher,1 H. H. Rotermund,1 A. S. Mikhailov,1 L. Organ,2 N. Budiansky,3 J. R. Scully,3 J. L. Hudson2*

Stainless steels undergo a sharp rise in pitting corrosion rate as the potential, solution concentration, or temperature is changed only slightly. We report experiments using real-time microscopic in situ visualizations that resolve the nucleation and evolution of individual pits during the transition. They suggest that the sudden onset of corrosion is explained by an explosive autocatalytic growth in the number of metastable pits and that stabilization of individual pits takes place only later. This finding agrees with a theoretical approach treating the onset of pitting corrosion as a cooperative critical phenomenon resulting from interactions among metastable pits, and it extends perspectives on the control and prevention of corrosion onset.

1 Abteilung Physikalische Chemie, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, 102 Engineers' Way, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904–4741, USA.
3 Department of Material Science and Engineering, 102 Engineers' Way, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904–4741, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hudson{at}virginia.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
From the Cover: Propagating waves of self-assembly in organosilane monolayers.
J. F. Douglas, K. Efimenko, D. A. Fischer, F. R. Phelan, and J. Genzer (2007)
PNAS 104, 10324-10329
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)