Effectiveness of pretreatment method to hinder rebar corrosion in concrete

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate the ability of phosphate pretreatments applied on steel rebars to hinder the corrosion reinforcements using synthetic pore electrolyte and mortar contaminated by chloride ions. The electrochemical behaviour of the pretreated substrate was assessed by corrosion potential, polarisation resistance and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. The results have demonstrated that the treatment of the rebar by immersion in the Na₃PO₄ (0·5M) solution favours the formation of a passive layer on the steel rebar surface, which increases the resistance to corrosion initiation up to 0·3M Cl^– instead of 0·1M Cl^– without treatment. The pretreatment also provides enhancement of corrosion protection of the steel rebar in mortar. The evolution of the impedance spectra in function of chloride concentration is in a fairly good agreement with the results obtained from R_P measurements.