Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T15:47:06.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beneficial Aspects of the Environmental Instability of Materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

John R. Ambrose  and
Priya R. Bendale
Get access

Extract

The environmental degradation of materials poses a serious limitation in the utility of engineering materials. The corrosion of metals, for example, has been estimated to represent a 4–5% decrease in the Gross National Product each year. To this, add losses involved in the replacement or restoration of ceramic structures such as buildings and transportation systems, i.e., the “infrastructure,” and the result is a significant sacrifice of economic strength.

Most of us are familiar with the consequences of exposing materials to environments in which the materials are chemically unstable and convert into substances that are unable to perform the function for which the original material was selected. The corrosion of metals into soluble or insoluble oxidation reaction products, chain scission or molecular mutation in polymers, even hydrolysis and leaching of silicious ceramic compounds represent behavior which ultimately limits the service applications of most engineering materials. For example, aluminum and its alloys are unsuitable for use in environments where oxide formation rates are high enough to represent a problem with respect to useful service life.

Type
Environmental Stability of Materials
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 18 , Issue 9 , September 1993 , pp. 53 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Pletcher, D., Industrial Electrochemistry (Chapman and Hall, London, 1982).Google Scholar
2.Young, L., Anodic Oxide Films (Academic Press, London, 1961).Google Scholar
3.Shreir, L.L., Corrosion (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1963).Google Scholar
4.Metals Handbook, 9th edition, Volume 5, (American Society for Metals, Metals Park, OH 1982).Google Scholar
5.Mann, C.K. and Barnes, K.K., Electrochemical Reactions in Nonaqueous Systems (Marcel Dekker, New York, 1970).Google Scholar
6.Ryshkewitch, E. and Richerson, D.W., Oxide Ceramics—Physical Chemistry and Technology (Academic Press, Orlando, 1985).Google Scholar
7.Philips, R.J., Shane, M.J., and Switzer, J.A., J. Mater. Res. 4 (4) (1989) p. 923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Feuersanger, A.E., Hangenlocher, A.K, and Solomon, A.L., J. Electrochem. Soc. 111 (1964) p. 1387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Prusi, A.R. and Arsov, L.D., Corr. Sci. 33 (1) (1992) p. 153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Bendale, P., Venigalla, S., Ambrose, J.R., Verink, E.D. Jr., and Adair, J.H., J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 76 (1993) in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Willems, J.J.G., Philips J. Res. Suppl. 39 (1) (1984) p. 1.Google Scholar
12.van Beek, J.R., Willems, J.J.G., and Donkersloot, H.C., in Power Sources 10, edited by Pearce, L.J. (Proc. 14th Int. Power Sources Symp., 1985) p. 317.Google Scholar