Electrochemical evaluation for rust preventive properties of rust preventive oils coated on Fe-Cu-C sintered steel

Since Fe-Cu-C sintered steels are easily rusted, they are coated with rust preventive oils. High viscosity of those rust preventive oils decrease workability, and low viscosity deteriorates rust preventive performance. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new rust preventive oils with contradictory properties of low viscosity and superior rust prevention. However, precise methodology to evaluate rust prevention ability has not been established. In this study, we developed new technique to quantitatively evaluate rust prevention ability by measuring the open circuit potential through thin corrosive solution on Fe-Cu-C sintered steels coated with a rust preventive oils. As a result, the ability for rust prevention can be measured quantitatively, and it decreases slowly over time, with repeating destruction and restoration. Furthermore, it was found that the deteriorating processes of rust prevention ability for rust prevention oils are composed of three characteristics steps respectively. That is, in the first step the great open circuit potential changes from 0V to -0.3V with repetition were observed where the excellent rust prevention ability was kept, in the second step it decreases slowly from -0.1V to -0.4V with oscillation of the small potential changes where the gradual decrease of rust prevention ability was recognized and in the third step it decreases monotonously in the lower potential than -0.4V where the rust was observed because of the remarkable deteriorating of the rust prevention ability.