Dissolution of chromium in sulfuric acid

Abstract

By combining electrochemical corrosion rate measurements and spectrophotometric analysis of the electrolyte it was shown that at room temperature chromium dissolves in deaerated 0.1 M Na2SO4 + H2SO4 (pH 1) solution as Cr(II) and Cr(III) ions in he ratio Cr(II) : Cr(III) @ 7 : 1. This process was stable over 4 h without any detectable change. The total corrosion rate of chromium calculated from the analytical data is about 12 times higher, than that determined electrochemically by cathodic Tafel line extrapolation to the corrosion potential. This finding was confirmed by applying the weight-loss method for the determination of the corrosion rate. This enormous difference between these experimentally determined corrosion rates can be explained by the rather fast, “anomalous” dissolution process proposed by Kolotyrkin and coworkers (chemical reaction of Cr with H2O molecules) occurring simultaneously with the electrochemical corrosion process.

Keywords

• chromium
• corrosion
• acid solutions
• corrosion products
• anomalous dissolution