• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.1-13
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate the feasibility of the half-cell potential (HCP) measurements on the concrete surface for evaluation of corrosion rate (or corrosion levels) of reinforcing steel in concrete. A series of experimental study is performed to measure HCP (or corrosion potential, E_corr) and corrosion current density (i_corr) of reinforcing steel in concrete cube specimens, with a side length of 200 mm. Various corrosion levels in a range of 0% to 20% of the test specimens are accelerated by impressing current to the reinforcing steel in concrete immersed in 3.0 % NaCl solution. HCP is measured in accordance with ASTM C876-15, and corrosion current density is determined by using the Stern-Geary equation and measured polarization resistance measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). As a result, a numerical formula that relates HCP and i_corr in the test specimen is established by a regression analysis of the measured data in this study. It is observed that HCP is linearly correlated with log(i_corr) with a R² greater than 0.87, which is less affected by the experimental variables such as concrete mixture proportion, diameter of reinforcing steel and the amount of applied current in this study. These results exhibit that HCP measurements could be effective for evaluation of corrosion rate (or corrosion levels) of reinforcing steel in concrete in the case of exposed to a certain consistent environment.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.588-593
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• 2022

Terephthalaldehyde (TPA) is introduced as a cross liker to enhance electron transfer of hemin-based cathodic catalyst consisting of polyethyleneimine (PEI), carbon nanotube (CNT) for hydrogen peroxide reduction reaction (HPRR). In the cyclic voltammetry (CV) test with 10 mM H₂O₂ in phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.4), the current density for HPRR of the suggested catalyst (CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI/TPA) shows 0.2813 mA cm^-2 (at 0.2 V vs. Ag/AgCl), which is 2.43 and 1.87 times of non-cross-linked (CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI) and conventional cross liker (glutaraldehyde, GA) used catalyst (CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI/GA), respectively. In the case of onset potential for HPRR, that of CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI/TPA is observed at 0.544 V, while those of CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI and CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI/GA are 0.511 and 0.471 V, respectively. These results indicate that TPA plays a role in facilitating electron transfer between the electrodes and substrates due to the π-conjugated cross-linking bonds, whereas conventional GA cross-linker increases the overpotential by interrupting electron and mass transfer. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results also display the same tendency. The charge transfer resistance (R_ct) of CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI/TPA decreases about 6.2% from that of CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI, while CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI/GA shows the highest R_ct. The polarization curve using each catalyst also supports the superiority of TPA cross liker. The maximum power density of CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI/TPA (36.34±1.41 μWcm^-2) is significantly higher than those of CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI (27.87±0.95 μWcm^-2) and CNT/PEI/hemin/PEI/GA (25.57±1.32 μWcm^-2), demonstrating again that the cathode using TPA has the best performance in HPRR.