Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy for the Measurement of the Corrosion Rate of Magnesium Alloys: Brief Review and Challenges

From a technological point of view, measurement of the corrosion rate of magnesium (Mg) and its alloys is critical for lifetime predictions of Mg-based structures and for comparative assessments of their corrosion protection ability. Whilst weight loss, hydrogen evolution, and polarization curves methods are frequently used for measuring the corrosion rate, the determination of values by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is relatively scarce and has only been realized recently. This technique seems to be the most suitable for monitoring corrosion rate values due to its "non-destructive" character, its reproducibility, and its reliable determination of small corrosion rates, much lower than those measured by other techniques. This review aims to picture the state-of-the-art technique of using EIS for measuring the corrosion rate of Mg. This paper starts by introducing some fundamental aspects of the most widely used methods for monitoring the corrosion rate of Mg/Mg alloy and continues by briefly explaining some of the fundamental concepts surrounding EIS, which are essential for the user to be able to understand how to interpret the EIS spectra. Lastly, these concepts are applied, and different approaches that have been proposed to obtain quantitative values of corrosion rate since the 1990s are discussed.