CORROSION RESEARCH ROUND‐UP

Monocrystal formation of iron. Observations carried out at the Institute for Medical Physics of the University of Münster (Westphalia) over a number of years had shown that, during the oxidation of pure metals, alloys and metals in contact with another metal, certain needle or leaf‐shaped oxide monocrystals are formed on the oxide surface. Further research has been carried out into the nature of these oxide monocrystals. In particular, it was desired to determine the conditions which favour the formation of such oxide monocrystals, to investigate their shape, and to identify them. It was found that the formation of free oxide crystals is essentially governed by one of the metal components. Where both of two components gave rise to the formation of oxide crystals, such formation is liable to undergo changes as a function of temperature. Further research is being carried out on the possible formation of mixed oxides.— (G. Pfefferkorn and J. Vahl, Metall‐oberfläche, 1962, 16 (2), 33–37.)