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Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 365371

www.elsevier.com/locate/corsci

Characterization of the rust formed on weathering steel exposed

to Qinghai salt lake atmosphere
Q.X. Li *, Z.Y. Wang, W. Han, E.H. Han
Environmental Corrosion Centre, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wencui Road 62, Shenyang 110016, PR China
Received 11 August 2006; accepted 22 June 2007
Available online 26 July 2007

Abstract
The product formed on weathering steel exposed to salt lake atmosphere for 12 months was investigated by X-ray diraction (XRD),
infrared transmission spectroscopy (IRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA) and electrochemical techniques. The rust was mainly composed of b-FeOOH, Fe8(O,OH)16Cl1.3 and a little c-FeOOH. Amorphous d-FeOOH
was only on skyward surface. The rust layer suppressed anodic reaction and facilitated the cathodic reaction. The very small value of
rust resistance Rr in this work indicated that the rust had poor protective ability. Cl element was rich in the whole rust layer and played
an important role in accelerating the corrosion of weathering steel in salt lake atmosphere.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: A. Weathering steel; C. Atmospheric corrosion; C. Salt lake

1. Introduction
Weathering steel is often used in the atmospheric
environment without paint or other protective coatings.
Atmospheric corrosion is an important cause of destruction of weathering steel constructions and has received
much interest in recent years [1,2]. When the same steel
is exposed to dierent environments, the characteristics
of corrosion products vary due to dierent environmental factors [3]. Therefore, it is signicant to study the
rust on weathering steel in a given atmospheric
environment.
Studies on atmospheric corrosion of weathering steels
have been carried out in many countries [111]. Wang
et al. investigated the corrosion of weathering steel
exposed to industrial atmosphere for 6 years in Taiwan
and concluded that the phase transformation of c-FeOOH into a-FeOOH contributed to the resistance of the
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 24 2389 3544; fax: +86 24 2389 4149.
E-mail address: qxli@imr.ac.cn (Q.X. Li).

0010-938X/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2007.06.020

rust layer against further corrosion [4,7,8]. Asami et al.

[6] studied the rust on steels exposed to coastal-industrial
atmosphere for 17 years and reported that all rust was
composed of a-FeOOH, b-FeOOH, c-FeOOH, Fe3O4
and amorphous rust. b-FeOOH was mainly present at
thick parts of rust layers. Nishimura et al. [9] took a
wet/dry corrosion test of steels in laboratory. It was
observed that the content of b-FeOOH in rust increased
with increasing the concentration of Cl in the environment and b-FeOOH was translated from green rust I
(GRI). Townsend et al. [10] investigated the corrosion
products on weathering steel exposed to industrial and
rural environments for 11 years, respectively. It was found
that the rusts on the steel in both environments were composed of a-FeOOH, c-FeOOH, a-Fe2O3 and Fe3O4.
a-Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 were existed in the outer layer of rusts
and they were important to the formation of protective
rust.
However, up to now, little work has been addressed in the
corrosion of weathering steel in salt lake environments.
Qinghai salt lake is located in the northwest of China.

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Q.X. Li et al. / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 365371

Table 1
Environmental conditions of the exposure location
Average temperature
(C year1)

Average rainfall
(mm year1)

Average evaporation
(mm year1)

Saline particles
(mg m2 day1)

Natural deposition
(g cm2 month1)
Soluble

17.5
a
b

38.3

3067.0

19.16

23.19

Insoluble
20.98b

The data were reported by Communication of National Network for Environment Corrosion Survey of Materials, China.
Average of natural deposition values in a year were provided by Wuhan Institute for Materials Protection, Wuhan, China.

The concentration of Cl ions in salt lake water is 34 wt.%,1

which is 10 times more than that in sea water. And the water
possesses a low pH value of 5.0. High salinity of salt lake
water and high deposition rate of sea-salt particles facilitate
the atmospheric corrosion of weathering steels in the salt
lake region. With the fast development of local economy, it
becomes very important to investigate the atmospheric corrosion process of weathering steel and reduce the cost. Therefore, in this work, a kind of weathering steel was exposed to a
salt lake region for 12 months. The rust formed on the steel
was characterized and the corrosion process was proposed.

(IRS) and X-ray diraction (XRD). The powdered rust

was scraped o from metallic substrate using a razor blade
and desiccated for a week before the subsequent analysis in
order to ensure the samples are completely dried. The rust
powder was mixed with pure KBr and the mixture was
pressed into a transparent circular ake. Nicolet Corporation Model magna-IR560 (with Veemax accessory) infrared spectrophotometer was used to determine the IR
spectra of the rust powder in the ranges from 400 to
4000 cm1. The XRD data of the rust powder were collected by a step-scanning diractometer and Cu Ka radiation (Rigaku D/max-2500PC Model, Japan).

2. Experimental methods
2.3. Analysis of the rust layer
2.1. Atmospheric rusting
Corten A weathering steel was selected and its composition (wt.%) is C 0.09, S 0.005, P 0.081, Mn 0.35, Si 0.3, Cr
0.48, Ni 0.27, Cu 0.28, Al 0.037 and Fe balance. The four
parallel samples (three for weight loss measurement and
one for rust layer analysis) were cut into the sizes of
100 mm  50 mm  5 mm and degreased with acetone. In
order to completely evaporate the water on the surface,
these samples were cleaned with ethanol and then kept in
a desiccator for at least 24 h. After the treatments, the samples were weighed using analytic balance (the precision is
0.0001 g). Samples for electrochemical analysis were
mounted in epoxy resin at room temperature and the
exposed area was 1 cm2. The electrode samples were
ground on SiC paper successively to 1000 grit and then
cleaned with ethanol.
The exposure site was located on the roof of an oce
building about 40 m far away from the salt lake. The environmental parameters of the exposure locations are listed
in Table 1. The weathering steel samples were exposed to
south at an angle of 45 to horizontal under open conditions. After 12 months, the samples were taken back for
analysis.
2.2. Analysis of the rust powder
The rusts formed on the steel surfaces were characterized by means of infrared transmission spectroscopy
1

The value was measured by Inspection and Testing Center for Agroproduct Safety and Environment Quality, Institute of Applied Ecology,
CAS.

The specimens were cut from rusted steel plates. Au was

deposited on the rusted surface for reinforcing the rust
layer and increasing the electric conductivity. The samples
for cross-section analysis were xed by an epoxy resin at
room temperature. And then they were mechanically
ground on SiC paper (grades 4002000) and polished with
diamond paste of 1.5 lm particle size in oil. After being
cleaned with ethanol, the samples were stored in a
desiccator.
The micrographs of the surface rust layers and the elements contents in the rusts were obtained using a FEI
Company Model XL30 ESEM FEG environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and energy dispersive
X-ray diraction (EDX). The distributions of several
important elements in the cross-sections of rust layers were
detected by a Shimadzu Model EPMA-1610 electron probe
micro analyzer at 15 kV accelerated voltage and 0.08 lA
sample current.
2.4. Electrochemical measurements
Electrochemical tests were performed using a Princeton
Applied Research (PAR) 5210 lock-in amplier and a PAR
263A potentiostat interfaced through an IEEE 488 bus to a
compatible computer. And the experiments were carried
out in 0.1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte open to the air at
20 1 C. The electrochemical cell consisted of three electrodes: a rusted working electrode, a saturated calomel reference electrode (SCE) and a platinum plate auxiliary
electrode. Prior to polarization and impedance measurements the samples were left freely immersed in the solution
for 1 h.

Q.X. Li et al. / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 365371

Anodic and cathodic polarization measurements were

taken on dierent samples using potential dynamic methods at a sweep rate of 20 mV/min. A sinusoid AC voltage
signal of amplitude 10 mV was applied during the impedance measurements. The impedance response was determined in the frequency range from 105 to 102 Hz.
3. Results and discussion
The appearance of the skyward surface on the rusted
steel was red brown and uniform, while the eld-ward surface was dark brown and uneven. After removing the rust
layers, average mass loss of weathering steel was determined to be 138.12 g/m2. In order to know the structure
of the rust layer, metallographic microscope was used to
observe the cross-sections of the rusted samples (Fig. 1).
From Fig. 1a and b, it could be seen that the steel was
corroded unevenly and the rust layers on both sides were
rough and not compact. For the skyward surface, its corrosion product is comprised of only one layer. Whereas for
the eld-ward surface, some positions of its rust layer consisted of two layers (Fig. 1c). The inner layer was dark
while the outer layer was bright. In addition, the average
thickness of the rust on skyward and eld-ward surfaces

Fig. 1. Metallographic cross-sections of rusted weathering steel: (a)

skyward surface, (b) eld-ward surface and (c) a section consisted of
two layers on eld-ward surface.

367

exhibited dierence: they were 52 lm and 65 lm, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that after 12 months
of exposure, the corrosion on eld-ward surface was more
severe than that on skyward surface.
SEM observation of the rusted steel surface (Fig. 2) further conrmed the above conclusion. Compared with that
on the skyward rust layer, the surface on the eld-ward rust
layer was rougher and contained more cavities.
EDX analysis was carried out on more than ve dierent positions of the rust layer and the average contents of
elements contained in the rust layer were obtained (Table
2). The foreign elements O, Mg, Al, Si, Cl, K, and Ca were
detected in both eld-ward and skyward rust layers. And
their contents in the rust of skyward surface were lower
than that of eld-ward surface. Generally, skyward surface
favored deposition of pollutant particles. However, comparing with eld-ward surface, the skyward surface was
subjected to more radiation by sun and more removal by
rain and wind. This resulted in the lower content of contaminations retained in the skyward rust.
Based on the above results, more severe corrosion of
eld-ward surface can be explained as the following factors. First factor is that the rust layer on eld-ward surface
is rougher and more porous than that on skyward surface.
Such phenomenon was also found in Refs. [12,13]. More
porous structure of eld-ward rust layers lead to less barrier against the ingress of precipitation and chlorides pollutants and higher corrosion rate. Second factor is the larger
amounts of polluted particles retained in the eld-ward
rust. The pollutants diused through the rust to the
metal/rust interface (conrmed by EPMA in Fig. 3) and
accelerated steel corrosion during wetting. Third is the formation of amorphous d-FeOOH only in the skyward rust
(see Fig. 5). Amorphous d-FeOOH is helpful to inhibit
the corrosion of weathering steel [14].
To determine the distributions of elements in the rust on
the steel, the EPMA analysis was performed. The results
are shown in Fig. 3. A large amount of Cl and a little S
were detected in the rust and Cl had diused to the interface between the rust and substrate. Therefore, it can be
postulated that Cl played an important role in the corrosion of weathering steel in the salt lake atmosphere. Si, Al,

Fig. 2. Scanning electron micrograph of the rust layer on weathering steel exposed to the salt lake atmosphere: (a) the skyward surface and (b) the eldward surface.

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Q.X. Li et al. / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 365371

Table 2
Average contents (wt.%) of elements containing in corrosion product
Element

O
Mg
Al
Si
Cl
K
Ca
Fe

Content
Skyward surface

Field-ward surface

4.51
1.15
0.87
2.13
1.58
0.76
0.81
88.50

5.74
2.07
3.47
8.34
3.60
1.72
0.97
75.60

Mg, and Ca were distributed in the whole rust layer. It is

worth noting that much Mg was found in this study.
Few papers had reported the presence of Mg in the rust.
This may be because the salt lake air contains an amount
of MgCl2 particles. The values of the critical relative
humidity (RH) of MgCl2 and NaCl are 35% and 75%,
respectively [15]. Evans demonstrated that the presence
of hygroscopic magnesium chloride in sea-salt or sea mist
enables corrosion to take place on iron and steel at much
lower relative humidity than if only sodium chloride is
present [16].
P element was not detected in the rust by EPMA
because the amount of P contained in the original weathering steel was little [8,17]. Ni, Cr and Cu existed in the rust.
However, they did not show any characteristic distribution.
Ni, Cr and Cu are benecial to the formation of the uniform protective rust layer on the surface of weathering
steel, whereas in this work, these elements did not display
their functions, which may be because of the short exposure time [8].

Fig. 4 shows the X-ray diraction patterns of the powdered rust formed on the weathering steels. The rust layers
on both surfaces were mainly composed of akaganeite (bFeOOH; JCPDS card # 34-1266), complex compound
Fe8(O,OH)16Cl1.3 (JCPDS card # 42-1315), and a little lepidocrocite (c-FeOOH; JCPDS card # 44-1415). In addition, the quartz was also found in the rust layers.
IR spectra were used to analyze the composition of the
powered rust (shown in Fig. 5). The main absorb peaks
were characterized according to the reported spectra of
iron oxides [8,18,19]. The main compositions of the rust
on both surfaces were b-FeOOH and c-FeOOH. Amorphous d-FeOOH was found only in the skyward rust.
Fe8(O,OH)16Cl1.3 was not examined because no IR data

Fig. 4. X-ray diraction patterns of the powdered rust formed on the

weathering steels.

Fig. 3. The distribution of O, Cl, S, Si, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cr, Ni and Cu in the rust formed on skyward surface of 12 months old weathering steel. Back scatter
electron image (BSEI) of the analyzed portion is shown in (a).

Q.X. Li et al. / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 365371

Fig. 5. IR spectra of the powdered rust formed on the weathering steels.

for Fe8(O,OH)16Cl1.3 can be obtained in the public literatures. Compared with that of the eld-ward rust, the peaks
of the skyward rust were broader and weaker, indicating
that the skyward rust was poorly crystallized. The absorption band at the vicinity of 1630 cm1 demonstrated that
all corrosion products contained a considerable amount
of bound water [8,19].
The results of XRD and IR indicated that a large
amount of b-FeOOH was present in the rust, which is associated with the high concentration of Cl in the Qinghai
salt lake atmosphere. This is due to the facts that the formation of b-FeOOH needs halogen ions such as Cl and
F, which stabilize the tunnel structure of b-FeOOH crystals [6,9,14]. b-FeOOH is considered to be the most detrimental to corrosion resistance of steel among the ferric
oxyhydroxides [2].
Generally, a-FeOOH is present in the rust of weathering
steel. However, in this work, no a-FeOOH was detected in
the XRD and IR spectra of rusts. This may be associated
with the chlorides-rich atmosphere of salt lake region. It
is well established that the content of b-FeOOH in rust
increased with increasing the concentration of Cl in the
environment [6,9,14]. Therefore, most Fe involved in the
corrosion reaction may be transformed into b-FeOOH,
resulting in the little amount of a-FeOOH in rusts. In addition, the transformation from c-FeOOH to a-FeOOH
requires several years [7,8]. In present work, the exposure
time is one year, which is not sucient for the formation
of a-FeOOH.
To determine the protective characteristics of the rust
layers, electrochemical measurements were performed on
bare and rusted electrodes. Polarization results are shown
in Fig. 6. Compared with that of naked steel, the corrosion
potential of the rusted sample became more positive. And
its anodic currents decreased. In addition, with the increase
of potential, the current density of the rusted sample
increased and then decreased at about 0.034 V. When
the potential further increased to the range of 0.40
0.75 V. the current density almost kept stable indicating

369

Fig. 6. Polarization curves of weathering steel in 0.5 M Na2SO4

electrolyte.

the passivation occurred on the rusted steel. Based on the

above results, it can be postulated that anodic reaction
was suppressed by the rust layer on the steel [9]. It also
can be seen from Fig. 6 that cathodic currents of the rusted
steel became much larger than that of bare steel. This was
mainly attributed to the reduction of ferric rust, not dissolved O2 [5,9,20,21].
Figs. 7 and 8 show the Nyquist and Bode plots of naked
and rusted steel, respectively. For rusted steel, the Nyquist
plot was composed of a capacitive arc in high frequency,
and a line in medium and low frequency region representing typical Warburg impedance. This indicated that the
electrochemical reaction was controlled by the diusion
process. The construction of rust layer can be described
using the equivalent circuit in Fig. 9 [11]. For naked steel,
only one double-layer capacitive semicircle was observed in
the Nyquist plot and its equivalent circuit is shown in
Fig. 10. In Figs. 9 and 10, Rs represents the electrolyte
resistance, Crust the rust capacitance, Rr the rust resistance,
Cdl the double-layer capacitance, Rt the charge-transfer

Fig. 7. Nyquist plots of weathering steel in 0.5 M Na2SO4 electrolyte.

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Q.X. Li et al. / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 365371

The electrochemical impedance for the circuit of Fig. 9

can be expressed by the following equation:
Z Rs

nrust

Y rust jx

1
Rr

1
1
Y dl jxndl 1=Rt Z w

where Yrust and nrust, Ydl and ndl are constants representing
the elements Qrust and Qdl, respectively, Zw is the Warburg
resistance. Zw is represented as follows [22]:
Z w Aw  jx

0:5

where Aw is the modulus of Zw.

The total impedance for the circuit of Fig. 10 can be
expressed by the following equation:
Fig. 8. Bode plots of weathering steel in 0.5 M Na2SO4 electrolyte.

Fig. 9. Equivalent circuit for rusted steel.

Fig. 10. Equivalent circuit for naked steel.

resistance, W the Warburg resistance. As the dispersion

eect is considered, a constant phase angle element (CPE)
Q is introduced to describe the element Cdl and Crust in
the tting procedure.

Z Rs

1
Y dl jx

ndl

1=Rt

The equivalent circuits of Figs. 9 and 10 are used to t

the Nyquist and Bode plots of rusted and naked steel,
respectively. A very good tting was obtained and the
results are listed in Table 3. Compared with that of the
naked steel, Rt of the rusted steel is much smaller, which
is attributed to the reduction of the rust accelerating the
cathodic reaction. It is worth noting that the values of Rr
and Aw are much smaller than those in the published literatures [4,9]. Rr is usually used to evaluate the corrosion
resistance of the rust. Therefore, it can be concluded that
the rust layer had poor barrier function and it can not eectively prevent the corrosion of weathering steel, which is in
good agreement with the porous structure of the rust layer.
Based on the all above results and the views furnished by
Misawa et al. [14], Nishimura et al. [9] and Allam et al. [23],
a model can be proposed to describe the initial corrosion
process of weathering steel in salt lake atmosphere
(Fig. 11).
At the beginning of exposure, many hygroscopic saline
particles (MgCl2, NaCl and KCl) were deposited on the
steel surface. When environmental RH reached the critical
relative humidity (RH) of the salts, deliquescence of the

Table 3
Fitting data of impedance parameters in equivalent circuits
Samples

Rs (X cm2)

Ydl (mF cm2 sn)

ndl

Rt (X cm2)

Rr (X cm2)

Yrust (mF cm2 sn)

nrust

Aw (X cm2 s1/2)

Naked
Rusted

23.34
38.59

0.90
1.17

0.81
0.51

891.4
23.34

6.57

9.106

0.53

0.018

Fe-2e
H2O+O2+4e

Fe2+
4OH-

FeCl2 and FeCl3

Oxidation withoutelimination of Cl

deliquescence (Mg,Na,K)Cln
Cl

-FeOOH
Fe8(O,OH)16Cl1.3

GRI(Fe(OH,Cl)2.55)

Air oxidation
Rapid oxidation
and dehydration

-FeOOH.
-FeOOH
amorphous

Fig. 11. Model of initial rusting process for weathering steel in salt lake atmosphere.

Q.X. Li et al. / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 365371

saline particles took place and a thin electrolyte lm was

formed around the deposited position [15]. When chloride
ions were released from the deliquescent saline particles,
they were more readily adsorbed than oxygen in competition for surface sites and could cause local breakdown of
the oxide/oxyhydroxide protective lm on the steel surface,
especially at discontinuities and surface heterogeneities
[17,23]. The area covered by electrolyte layer lacked oxygen
and served as anodic site. And in the anodic area iron was
oxidized into ferrous ions. The region free of pollutant particles and rich in oxygen acted as cathodic site. And in the
cathodic region oxygen was reduced into hydroxyl ions.
The excess positive charge at anodic sites would be balanced by migration of Cl and OH ions. In this way,
countless electrochemical cells involving cathodic and anodic areas were formed and scattered on the steel surface.
The corrosion of weathering steel was accelerated. Under
open exposure conditions, in the presence of moisture
and oxygen, the corrosion would be facilitated by the deliquescence and/or oxidation of iron chlorides FeCl2 and
FeCl3, accompanied with the formation of hydrochloric
acid [23,24]. A neutral or slightly acidic environment was
created and intermediate oxyhydoxychlorides green rust
I (GRI(Fe(OH,Cl)2.55)) was formed on the metal surface
[9,14]. Most GRI was further oxidized into b-FeOOH
and Fe8(O,OH)16Cl1.3 and a small part of GRI was transformed into c-FeOOH and amorphous d-FeOOH. Once bFeOOH and Fe8(O,OH)16Cl1.3 were formed, they would
work as a reservoir of Cl. In the wetting condition, chloride ion in rust was easily separated, resulting in the formation of pore in rust [6].
4. Conclusions
(1) The corrosion on eld-ward surface was more severe
than that on skyward surface. The corrosion products on both surfaces were mainly composed of bFeOOH, Fe8(O,OH)16Cl1.3 and a little c-FeOOH.
Amorphous d-FeOOH was found only on skyward
surface.
(2) The rust layer suppressed the anodic reaction and
facilitated the cathodic reaction. The very small value
of rust resistance Rr indicated that the rust layer as a
poor barrier could not prevent the corrosion of steel.
(3) Cl has an important inuence on the corrosion of
weathering steel in the salt lake atmosphere.
Acknowledgement
This work was funded by the National Natural Science
foundation of China under the Contract 50499331.
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