Challenges to electrochemical evaluation of nanometric sandwiched thin specimens using liquid cells designed for application in liquid-phase TEM corrosion studies

• Published in: Corrosion science Vol. 192; p. 109864
• Main Authors: Kosari, A., Zandbergen, H., Tichelaar, F., Visser, P., Terryn, H., Mol, J.M.C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Corrosion; Corrosion cell; Corrosion effects; Design; Electrochemical analysis; Electrochemical liquid cell; Electrode polarization; FIB/SEM; Light alloys; Liquid phases; Liquid-phase TEM; Open circuit voltage; Potentiodynamic polarisation; Transmission electron microscopy; Light alloys; Liquid-phase TEM; FIB/SEM; Potentiodynamic polarisation; Electrochemical liquid cell
• DOI: 10.1016/j.corsci.2021.109864
• EISSN: 1879-0496
• ISSN: 0010-938X

Liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (LP-TEM) has provided corrosion scientists with a unique opportunity to directly correlate nanoscopic morphological and compositional evolutions to the corresponding electrochemical response of corroding thin TEM specimens. Electrochemical liquid cell designs are key components of a LP-TEM study towards an implementation which is representative for realistic exposure conditions of bulk samples. However, the application of commercially available liquid cells in corrosion studies brings along an important shortcoming of galvanic coupling effects due to the inevitable connection of the TEM specimens with Pt patterned electrodes. Here, we introduce an approach of fabricating electrochemical liquid cells to alleviate the current cell design challenge for corrosion studies. Besides, we present a protocol for preparing thin specimens to be electrochemically investigated with our home-made electrochemical liquid cell. We finally confirm the effectiveness of this methodology by electrochemically evaluating thin specimens of AA2024-T3 in an open-cell configuration through open circuit potential and potentiodynamic polarisation measurements.
•Design of electrochemical liquid cell for application in biased LP-TEM studies of corrosion.•Presenting a protocol to prepare thin specimens for electrochemical LP-TEM corrosion studies.•Electrochemical evaluation of sandwiched thin AA2024-T3 specimens in LP-TEM.