Review on Corrosion Behavior of Metallic Materials in Room Temperature Ionic Liquids

A wide range of applications of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) in various fields inevitably require knowledge about their interaction with devices that are mainly composed of metallic materials. Degradation mechanism of metals and alloys in RTIL systems is supposed to be different from that in conventional aqueous system. We gathered some significant data from previously published papers to discuss a dissolution or passivation phenomenon that occurs on metallic electrodes in RTIL systems. The following two topics dominate literature on this field: corrosion behavior of metals and alloys in chloroaluminate RTILs, and anodic stability of aluminum in air-and water-stable RTILs. The composition ratio of constituted compounds is the main factor that determines the anodic stability of metal/alloys in the chloroaluminate RTILs, while the properties of surface layer formed by reactions between anions and metal ions are the crucial factor in the air-and water-stable RTIL systems.