This book is concerned with providing a fundamental basis for understanding the alloy-gas oxidation and corrosion reactions observed in practice and in the laboratory. Starting with a review of the enabling thermodynamic and kinetic theory, it analyzes reacting systems of increasing complexity. It considers in turn corrosion of a pure metal by a single oxidant and by multi-oxidant gases, followed by corrosion of alloys producing a single oxide then multiple reaction products. The concept of "diffusion paths is used in describing the distribution of products in reacting systems, and diffusion data is used to predict reaction rates whenever possible. - Provides a logical and expert treatment of the subject for use as a guide for advanced-level academics, researchers and practitioners - Text is well supported by numerous micrographs, phase diagrams and tabulations of relevant thermodynamic and kinetic data - Combines physical chemistry and materials science methodologies

Human beings undoubtedly became aware of corrosion just after they made their first metals. These people probably began to control corrosion very so on after that by trying to keep metal away from corrosive environments. "Bring your tools in out of the rain" and "Clean the blood off your sword right after battle" would have been early maxims. Now that the mechanisms of corrosion are better understood, more techniques have been developed to control it. My corrosion experience extends over 10 years in industry and research and over 20 years teaching corrosion courses to university engineering students and industrial consulting. During that time I have developed an approach to corrosion that has successfully trained over 1500 engineers. This book treats corrosion and high-temperature oxidation separately. Corrosion is divided into three groups: (1) chemical dissolution including uniform attack, (2) electrochemical corrosion from either metallurgicalor environmental cells, and (3) corrosive-mechanical interactions. It seems more logical to group corrosion according to mechanisms than to arbitrarily separate them into 8 or 20 different types of corrosion as if they were unrelated. University students and industry personnel alike generally are afraid of chemistry and consequently approach corrosion theory very hesitantly. In this text the electrochemical reactions responsible for corrosion are summed up in only five simple half-cell reactions. When these are combined on a polarization diagram, which is explained in detail, the electrochemical pro cesses become obvious.

The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Fundamental Aspects of Inert Gases in Solids, held at Bonas, France from 16-22 September 1990, was the fifth in a series of meetings that have been held in this topic area since 1979. The Consultants' Meeting in that year at Harwell on Rare Gas Behaviour in Metals and Ionic Solids was followed in 1982 by the Jiilich Inter national Symposium on Fundamental Aspects of Helium in Metals. Two smaller meetings have followed-a CECAM organised workshop on Helium Bubbles in Metals was held at Orsay, France in 1986 while in February 1989, a Topical Symposium on Noble Gases in Metals was held in Las Vegas as part of the large TMS/AIME Spring Meeting. As is well known, the dominating feature of inert gas atoms in most solids is their high heat of solution, leading in most situations to an essentially zero solubility and gas-atom precipita tion. In organising the workshop, one particular aim was to target the researchers in the field of inert-gas/solid interactions from three different areas--namely metals, tritides and nuclear fuels-in order to encourage and foster the cross-fertilisation of approaches and ideas. In these three material classes, the behaviour of inert gases in metals has probably been most studied, partly from technological considerations-the effects of helium production via (n, a) reac tions during neutron irradiation are of importance, particularly in a fusion reactor environ ment-and partly from a more fundamental viewpoint.

The book brings together, for the first time, all aspects of reactions of metallic species in the gas phase and gives an up-to-date overview of the field. Reactions covered include those of atomic, other free radical and transient neutral species, as well as ions. Experimental and theoretical work is reviewed and the efforts to establish a closer link between these approaches are discussed. The field is mainly approached from a fundamental point-of-view, but the applied problems which have helped stimulate the interest are pointed out and form the major subject of the final chapters. These emphasize the competition between purely gas-phase and gas-surface reactions.