Project title: Advancing the atomistic theory of corrosion passivation in sulfidic environments

Supervisor: Prof Nic Harrison and Dr Paul Tangney

Project description:

Corrosion in the oil field environment poses significant economic, environmental, and safety risks. The presence of solid corrosion products, such as iron sulphides and iron carbonates, can lead to a significant reduction in corrosion rates. Therefore, a fundamental understanding at the atomistic level of their formation, stability and growth is vital for the oil and gas field equipment sustainability. Particularly, the formation of iron sulphides is complicated by the existence of several stable and metastable Fe-S compounds1,2. To date a comprehensive understanding of the phase stability has not yet been achieved3,4. Atomistic calculations combined with ab initio thermodynamics are used to characterise the structural, electronic and thermodynamic properties of the corrosion scale phases.

[1] Lennie, A. R, et al. Mineral Spectro., 5, 117.
[2] Anderko, A. et al. Comput. Geosci., 23, 647.
[3] Rickard, D. et al. Chem. Rev., 107, 514.

[4] Benning, L. G. et al. Chem. Geol., 167, 25.