Corrosion rate of carbon steel and aluminum alloy in sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid solutions accelerated by microwave heating

Corrosion behavior of carbon steel and aluminum alloy in hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid solutions was studied using microwave heating and conventional water bath heating method, respectively. The effect of microwave heating on corrosion time was investigated by using weight loss method and the surface morphology of metals was studied by using scanning electron microscope, too. The conclusion that microwave heating is a good method to accelerate corrosion process can be obtained from the test results and surface morphology. Both the mass loss of the metals and the pH of the solutions increase with the microwave power increasing and the immersion time prolonging. The mass loss of the specimens heated by microwave is notably higher than that heated by water bath under the same corrosion time and temperature. For all of the four corrosion systems, the corrosion results obtained using microwave heating at 75 degrees C lasting 40 h are equivalent to that obtained by using water bath at 55 degrees C, lasting 168 h, whereas more than 70 h is needed to achieve the same corrosion results by using the water bath at 75 degrees C. (C) 2012 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.