Corrosion Performance of Carbon Steel in Micelle-containing Cement Extract

This study presents the results from a preliminary investigation on the corrosion behavior of low carbon steel in cement extract (CE) in the presence of very low concentration polymeric nano-aggregates (PEO113-b-PS70 micelles). The steel electrodes were investigated in Cl--containing CE as corrosion medium, compared to chloride-free CE as a reference case. The results from the electrochemical measurements (Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and Potentio-dynamic Polarization (PDP)) indicate that the presence of micelles leads to increased corrosion resistance of the steel, but pronounced only at early stages (1h and 3h), whereas no significant influence was observed within longer immersion periods (5d). To some extent, this result was as expected, considering the used low concentration of micelles for this test. The surface analysis however, shows that the presence of the micelles in the cement extract, results in a more homogeneous and compact layer on the steel surface, compared to the steel immersed in the micelles-free solutions