An investigation of the corrosion of WC–Co cermets in CN−-containing aqueous solutions. Part II: Synchrotron-based high lateral-resolution XPS study

Abstract In the literature on the corrosion behaviour of WC–Co hardmetal grades, it has been pointed out that – typically – corrosion resistance in several aqueous environments relies on the formation of pseudo-passivating layers on top of the two-phase material. So far, no detailed space-dependent study has been performed of the local structure and chemistry of such peculiar corrosion-product layers. In this paper, we propose a detailed chemical analysis – performed with a remarkably advanced synchrotron-based photo-electron microscope – of samples whose electrochemical (CV) and spectroelectrochemical (in situ SFG and ERS) characterisation has been published in a companion paper [B. Bozzini, B. Busson, G.P. De Gaudenzi, L. D’Urzo, C. Mele, A. Tadjeddine, Corros. Sci. 49 (2007) 2392–2405].