Studies on the initial stages of zinc atmospheric corrosion in the presence of chloride

A four-year exposure program was carried out in Taiwan in which 23 test sites with different climatic and pollution conditions were chosen and evaluated according to ISO standards 9223-9226. Examination of the results indicated that most of the tests sites were very corrosive to zinc specimens and there was a severe white rust problem for freshly galvanized items stored in high humidity outdoors environments. In addition, the initial stages of zinc atmospheric corrosion in the presence of chloride were studied quantitatively in a non-aqueous electrolyte (methanol) using ex situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to determine polarization resistance (R_p). The samples were exposed to the synthetic atmospheres with careful controlled relative humidity, temperature, and contaminating salts. It was observed that a change of R_p was accompanied by a change in the corrosion product on the zinc surface, and that the R_p increased with relative humidity (RH) during pre-exposure. Furthermore, the corrosion products of zinc were analyzed qualitatively by grazing-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Zinc hydroxycarbonate (Zn₅(CO₃)₂(OH)₆) and zinc oxide (ZnO) in this surface layer were found to provide protection against chloride contaminants.