Effect of temperature and ultraviolet radiation on corrosion behavior of carbon steel in high humidity tropical marine atmosphere

Abstract Effect of temperature and ultraviolet radiation (UV) on corrosion behavior of carbon steel in high humidity atmospheric environment has been investigated by mass loss, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical profiler, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electrochemical analysis. The results showed that in high humidity marine atmosphere, environmental temperature had a greater influence on corrosion rate of carbon steel. The weight loss rate can increase 222% as environmental temperature increased from 30 °C to 60 °C. Both the composition and the morphology of the rust layer changed as environmental temperature increased. The cathodic polarization current density of the rusted samples increased gradually with the increase of environmental temperature. The effect of UV illumination on carbon steel was closely related to environmental temperature, the higher the environmental temperature, the greater the impact.