Effect of the ion selectivity of a precipitate membrane on the corrosion of carbon steel in Cu2+-containing solution

Abstract An artificial precipitate membrane composed of zinc hydroxide and aluminum hydroxide was fabricated on a cellulose sheet by chemical precipitation. The precipitate membrane is anion selective; the membrane tends to be more anion selective and more protective against Cu2+ ions after immersion in calcium nitrate solution and less anion selective and more protective against Cl− ions after immersion in sodium sulfate solution. The permeability of Cu2+ and Cl− ions was also determined by separating the Cl−- or Cu2+-containing solution and distilled water using the processed cellulose sheet. The mechanisms involved to explain the role of ion-selectivity on the corrosion protection behavior of the membrane were proposed.