Gildes model studies of aqueous chemistry. II. The corrosion of zinc in gaseous exposure chambers

The GILDES model has been used to perform the first theoretical mechanistic study of the atmospheric corrosion of zinc in a controlled environment. Detailed comparisons are made of model results with laboratory data for short-term (0–1000 min) and long-term (0–680 h) exposures of zinc to SO2, NO2 and O3 at high relative humidities. The agreement of theory and experiment is excellent, indicating that the model has captured the principal processes (especially ligand-promoted dissolution) involved in the corrosion of zinc under these conditions.