Corrosion Theory and Corrosion Characterization Techniques

Corrosion is the deterioration of materials caused by the interaction between materials and the environment. Broadly speaking, any structural material (both metallic and non-metallic) is at risk of corrosion. During the service process in CCUS projects, both metal materials and non-metal materials like cement undergo chemical, electrochemical and physical interactions with the environmental medium in which they are located, resulting in deterioration and destruction. In this chapter, basic corrosion theories and key processes in metal corrosion (i.e., polarization, anodic corrosion, cathodic corrosion, passivation, etc.) and cement corrosion (i.e., soft water corrosion, salt corrosion, acid corrosion, alkali corrosion, etc.) are systematically discussed. Widely-used metal and cement corrosion characterization techniques like weight loss method, SEM, XRD, EDS, and CT are discussed as well.