Influence of the cation force diffusion on thermal oxidation of metals

Abstract

The crucial role of transport processes through oxide layers has long been acknowledged in the study of metal oxidation, but the experimental results are generally analyzed taking into account observations performed at room temperatures. In the present work, we present a formal treatment, derived by use of equations of irreversible thermodynamic as a general basis, to describe the kinetics of oxide layer growth. This has allowed us to show the influence of both the cation diffusion driving force and the cation kinetic demixing within the oxidation layer.