Corrosion behavior of steel bar in magnesium oxysulfide cement-based materials: The role of chloride and nitrite

Abstract

Magnesium oxysulfide (MOS) cement has emerged as a promising cementitious material due to the high strength and excellent durability, but research on its rust inhibition remains limited. In this study, the chloride and nitrite were introduced in the MOS cement composites, aiming to investigate the corrosion properties and reveal the rust inhibition mechanism of steel bar under different W/C ratio. Experimental results show that the corrosion area ratios reach the largest value of approximately 98% and the lowest value of approximately 3%, respectively, as the chloride and nitrite contents increase to 2%. Compared with chloride, the effect of W/C ratio on the mass loss of steel bar is gradually weakened when the nitrite content is larger than 0.5%. Based on the natural potential, the change of corrosion degree mainly occurs after 28d. In addition, the corrosion potential of steel bar decreases and corrosion rate increases with the increase of chloride content in MOS cement composites. Conversely, the presence of Mg(NO2)2 from nitrite engenders an opposite effect. Besides, the increase of W/C ratio results in higher electrochemical parameters. At this time, the rust inhibition mechanism is revealed based on the micro-structure analysis.

Keywords

• Magnesium oxysulfide cement
• Electrochemical corrosion resistance
• Corrosion degree
• Steel bar
• Natural potential