ABSTRACT
Oxide corrosion products build up on high-speed turbine blades, in the piping in nuclear reactors, on the wings of aircraft, and in such mundane settings as an automobile fender. These corrosion products must be periodically removed by chemical dissolution using strong chelating agents or by physical abrasion. Dissolution rates of oxide minerals vary with solution pH, and the variation arises from the adsorption of protons to surface oxygens and the deprotonation of functional groups. In addition, a wide range of ligands has been shown to accelerate oxide mineral dissolution, including fluoride, carboxylates, amines, and phenols and these ligands usually form surface complexes rapidly. Rates of mineral dissolution are properly expressed in terms of the concentration of each metal–ligand surface complex with distinct reactivity and stoichiometry. If the effects of metal–oxygen bond dissociation can be isolated from other reactions, such as depolymerization of a silicate chain, one expects oxide mineral dissolution rates to correlate with bond strengths.
