Course description:
This course is an upper level course designed for seniors and/or graduate students. The course is aimed at investigating the underlying fundamental causes of corrosion problems and failures. Emphasis is placed on the electrochemical reactions occurring and the tools and knowledge necessary for predicting corrosion, measuring corrosion rates, and combining this with prevention and materials selection.

Included on the site is a downloadable software package, Ecorr, designed to teach the basics of corrosion. It is interactive, requiring input from the user for calculations, and corrects user mistakes. Also available on the site are "Important Corrosion Concepts to Remember" and example homework assignments on the following course topics:
• Technology and evaluation of corrosion
• Electrochemical thermodynamics
• Electrochemical kinetics of corrosion
• Passivity and properties of passive films on metals
• Polarization methods for measuring corrosion rates
• Galvanic, concentration cell, pitting, and crevice corrosion
• Effects of metallurgical structure on corrosion
• Corrosion in selected environments
• Coatings and inhibitors
• Materials selection and design

Citation: G.W. Warren, "MTE 487/587 Corrosion Science & Engineering," Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, University of Alabama, Fall 2002.

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The Ecorr program does have a few bugs but most of them are (hopefully) minor. You might wish to make note of three of the more critical errors or omissions below.

1. Missing photo on page D3: This photo may or may not be missing, but it should show an electrochemical cell where one lead of a voltmeter is connected to a piece of pure Cu in 1 M CuSO4 and the other lead is connected to piece of pure Zn in 1 M ZnSO4. The voltmeter display shows 1.1 V as predicted by thermodynamics.

2. Page D6: The statement at the bottom of the screen should read: “In the right hand column, the zero value is given to the Hg2Cl2/Hg electrode (SCE). As a result reduction potentials vs SCE are obtained by subtracting 0.241 from the SHE values."

3. Error on page E1: The second text box incorrectly accepts -.206 as a correct answer. The correct answer is +0.206 V.