Profiling iron corrosion coating on iron grains in a zerovalent iron system under the influence of dissolved oxygen

Rapid oxidation of Fe(0) by O(2) occurred when Fe(0) grains were bathed in 0.54 mM FeCl(2) solution saturated with dissolved oxygen (DO), forming a substantial corrosion coating on Fe(0) grains. A sonication method was developed to strip the corrosion coating off the iron grains layer by layer. The transformation of the constituents and the morphology of the corrosion coating along its depth and over reaction time were investigated with composition analysis, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Results indicate that the sonication method could consistently recover >90% iron oxides produced by the Fe(0)-DO redox reaction. Magnetite (Fe(3)O(4)) and lepidocrocite (gamma-FeOOH) were identified as the corrosion products. Initially, lepidocrocite was the preferential product in the presence of DO. As the oxide coating thickened, the inner layer transformed to magnetite, which retained as the only stable corrosion product once DO was depleted. The study confirms the phase transformations between gamma-FeOOH and Fe(3)O(4) within a stratified corrosion coating. The sonication technique exemplifies a new approach for investigating more complicated processes in Fe(0)/oxides/contaminants systems.