CROCUS: miCro laboRatory fOr antiCorrosion solUtion deSign

To this end, a new platform of combinatorial library of alloy design/fabrication system coupled with high-throughput element-resolved electrochemical analysis will be developed in the CROCUS project. A novel method, atomic emission spectroelectrochemistry (AESEC) will be used to access element-resolved electrochemistry, complementary to the conventional electrochemical measurements. This technique traces the fate of each alloying element during activation, passivation and degradation of the material. The AESEC technique will be coupled with other in situ techniques to investigate the elementary level corrosion behavior of complex multi-element alloys (e.g., Ni-Cr based alloys) and oxide coatings. An accelerated high-throughput electrochemical evaluation of the samples will be carried out via scanning droplet cell (SDC) measurement in collaboration with 2FAST project.

The CROCUS project will thus be able to open up a new opportunity to build up an element-by-element corrosion database in a wide range of aggressive environments with different compositions, concentrations, pH and temperatures, allowing the development of new generations of corrosion resistant materials through the use of digital design and artificial intelligence optimization tools in collaboration with DIAMOND project. The experimental database, combined with artificial intelligence (AI) tools, will be used to establish quantitative empirical relationship for various forms of corrosion, such as the well-known pitting resistance equivalent number (PREN) used in stainless steel industry for pitting corrosion. The validation of these parameters will therefore be carried out by full-scale corrosion tests on engineered materials meeting the criteria defined previously. An accelerated systematic study will be carried out, taking into account the chemical composition, microstructure and interaction of each alloy phase. AESEC-electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and AESEC-electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) couplings developed by the members of the consortium will provide more refined quantitative kinetic information on the corrosion mechanism. Local electrochemical techniques such as SDC and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) will be applied to obtain surface properties with higher spatial resolution, providing high-throughput characterization that can be used for alloy design.

The CROCUS project involves transdisciplinary collaboration, with consortium members each having unique expertise in their own field. Metallurgical development using high-throughput alloy design approaches will be carried out at IRCP with its profound experience in alloy manufacturing.

Accelerated element-resolved electrochemical characterization will be carried out at LISE with its unique expertise in AESEC analysis. The large-scale corrosion assessment combined with AI will be carried out at CEA with extensive testing facilities for various aqueous and non-aqueous environments.

This project will contribute to complementing existing knowledge on corrosion reactions in multi-material systems, by providing in situ and operando kinetic information at the elementary scale using this miniaturized corrosion investigation platform. Finally, a new method for accelerated discovery of anticorrosion materials will be proposed.