Subject
Electric current, Materials, Ions, Dislocation, Sulfuric acid, Corrosion initiation, Density, Crevices, Corrosion attacks, Corrosion behavior, Crevice corrosion, Alloys, Samples

Ion implantation is a technique that has been used frequently to investigate the corrosion behavior of metastable alloys. The implantation process results in a chemically and structurally modified surface layer. The implanted layer is generally less than several thousand angstroms deep. Inert gases (Xe, Ar, etc.) are sometimes implanted to act as markers for studies involving these surface modified materials.1,2  Measurement of the marker depth then allows quantitative determination of material loss due to corrosion in the depth regime where weight loss measurements are impossible because instrumentation cannot sense such infinitesimal differences. Since inert gases are not expected to be chemically active in a metal, it is tempting to assume that such implanted markers do not affect the corrosion properties of the alloy. This note addresses evidence to the contrary. It will be shown how, under certain conditions, the implantation of xenon can affect the corrosion behavior of an...

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