In-situ iron corrosion in brine using TEM

We present the corrosion of an iron film in brine solution (0.1 NaCl) as measured by liquid TEM. Dissolution of the iron film and nucleation of the corrosion products is captured by imaging. It shows that the nucleation initiates at the metal surface, with preferential growth along the metal grain boundaries. The corrosion product that forms is characterised in-situ as hematite by electron diffraction.