Challenges to electrochemical evaluation of nanometric sandwiched thin specimens using liquid cells designed for application in liquid-phase TEM corrosion studies

Journal article (2021)

Authors

A. Kosari Team Yaiza Gonzalez Garcia - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
H.W. Zandbergen QN/Zandbergen Lab , Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft
F.D. Tichelaar Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, QN/Afdelingsbureau
Peter Visser Akzo Nobel
H.A. Terryn Vrije Universiteit Brussel
J.M.C. Mol Team Arjan Mol - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
Research Group
Team Yaiza Gonzalez Garcia (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2021 A. Kosari, H.W. Zandbergen, F.D. Tichelaar, P. Visser, H.A. Terryn, J.M.C. Mol
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2021.109864
More Info
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Published Date

2021

Language

English

Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Materials Science and Engineering

Research Group

Team Yaiza Gonzalez Garcia

Abstract

Liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (LP-TEM) has provided corrosion scientists with a unique opportunity to directly correlate nanoscopic morphological and compositional evolutions to the corresponding electrochemical response of corroding thin TEM specimens. Electrochemical liquid cell designs are key components of a LP-TEM study towards an implementation which is representative for realistic exposure conditions of bulk samples. However, the application of commercially available liquid cells in corrosion studies brings along an important shortcoming of galvanic coupling effects due to the inevitable connection of the TEM specimens with Pt patterned electrodes. Here, we introduce an approach of fabricating electrochemical liquid cells to alleviate the current cell design challenge for corrosion studies. Besides, we present a protocol for preparing thin specimens to be electrochemically investigated with our home-made electrochemical liquid cell. We finally confirm the effectiveness of this methodology by electrochemically evaluating thin specimens of AA2024-T3 in an open-cell configuration through open circuit potential and potentiodynamic polarisation measurements.