Mechanisms, Methods and Models

Corrosion of metals in aqueous environments is an area of increasing technological importance: it is critical to the long-term storage of nuclear waste, safe operation of ageing aircraft, and implantation of metal devices in the bodies of ever-younger patients. It affects the durability of components manufactured from recycled metals with high impurity levels, in development of light alloys for energy-efficient transportation, and in energy technologies such as batteries and fuel cells. At the atomistic scale, corrosion is crucial to the stability of metal nanostructures and nanoparticles. A fundamental mechanistic understanding of corrosion processes is vital to advances in these fields, and is now within our grasp owing to exciting developments in in situ experimental methods and major progress in multiscale and atomistic modeling.

A fundamental understanding of corrosion mechanisms is key to achieving the practical goals of corrosion research: protection of metals against degradation, and prediction of the lifetime to corrosion failure of individual components. Probing these mechanisms requires research tools that monitor corrosion in situ in wet environments with sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to capture the evolution of damage. Advances in visualisation, both in 2D and 3D (for example microtomography) are opening up our understanding of corrosion processes. Developments in a number of fields, ranging from scanning probe methods to the next generation of synchrotrons, will shed new light on corrosion processes.

Modelling is of critical importance for evaluation of proposed mechanisms and to carry out “life prediction”. Continuing advances at both the atomistic and macro-scale offer great possibilities for integrating new mechanistic understanding with experimental validation to explain and predict corrosion processes over orders of magnitude in length-scale and time. The aim of the 2008 Gordon Research Conference is to develop the synergism between advances in mechanistic understanding, experimental methods and modelling in order to enhance our ability to predict and prevent corrosion damage.