An intelligent monitoring lubricant is essential for the development of smart machines because unexpected and fatal failures of critical dynamic components in the machines happen every day, threatening the life and health of humans. Inspired by the triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) work on water, we present a feasible way to prepare a self-powered triboelectric sensor for real-time monitoring of lubricating oils via the contact electrification process of oil–solid contact (O–S TENG). Typical intruding contaminants in pure base oils can be successfully monitored. The O–S TENG has very good sensitivity, which even can respectively detect at least 1 mg mL^–1 debris and 0.01 wt % water contaminants. Furthermore, the real-time monitoring of formulated engine lubricating oil in a real engine oil tank is achieved. Our results show that electron transfer is possible from an oil to solid surface during contact electrification. The electrical output characteristic depends on the screen effect from such as wear debris, deposited carbons, and age-induced organic molecules in oils. Previous work only qualitatively identified that the output ability of liquid can be improved by leaving less liquid adsorbed on the TENG surface, but the adsorption mass and adsorption speed of liquid and its consequences for the output performance were not studied. We quantitatively study the internal relationship between output ability and adsorbing behavior of lubricating oils by quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) for liquid–solid contact interfaces. This study provides a real-time, online, self-powered strategy for intelligent diagnosis of lubricating oils.

Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) has been integrated with electrochemical atomic force microscopy (EC-AFM), and applied for in situ studies of localized corrosion of Al alloys in NaCl solution. The instrument utilizes a dual mode probe, which functions both as a normal cantilever and as an ultramicroelectrode. The redox mediator was used for mapping of local electrochemical current. Concurrent topography and electrochemical activity maps have been obtained on the same surface area with micrometer lateral resolution. Preliminary results show ongoing localized dissolution related to intermetallic particles in the Al alloys, which may occur well below the breakdown potential.

Corrosion inhibition of aluminum alloy AA6063-T5 by vanadates (NaVO₃) in 0.05 M NaCl solution has been investigated by electrochemical and weight loss measurements, and associated with microstructure and Volta potential data. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy analyses confirmed the presence of micrometer-sized Fe-rich Al_4.01MnSi_0.74, Al_1.69Mg₄Zn_2.31, and FeAl₃ intermetallic phases (IMPs) and nanometer-sized CuAl₂, ZnAl₂, and Mg₂Si precipitates in the microstructure. Scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy measurements showed Volta potential differences of up to 600 mV between the microstructure constituents indicating a high susceptibility to micro-galvanic corrosion, with interphase boundary regions exhibiting the highest propensity to corrosion. Most IMPs had cathodic character whereas some nanometer-sized Mg-rich particles exhibited anodic nature, with large Volta potential gradients within interphase regions of large cathodic particles. Electrochemical potentiodynamic polarization measurements indicated that the vanadates provided mixed corrosion inhibition effects, mitigating both oxygen reduction, occurring on cathodic IMPs, and anodic metal dissolution reaction, occurring on anodic sites, such as Mg₂Si and interphase boundary regions. Electrochemical measurements indicated that the sodium metavanadate inhibitor blocks active metal dissolution, giving high inhibition efficiency (>95%) during the initial exposure, whereas long-term weight loss measurements showed that the efficacy decreases after prolonged exposure.

Corrosion is the main factor limiting the lifetime of metallic materials, and a fundamental understanding of the governing mechanism and surface processes is difficult to achieve since the thin oxide films at the metal–liquid interface governing passivity are notoriously challenging to study. In this work, a combination of synchrotron‐based techniques and electrochemical methods is used to investigate the passive film breakdown of a Ni–Cr–Mo alloy, which is used in many industrial applications. This alloy is found to be active toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and the OER onset coincides with the loss of passivity and severe metal dissolution. The OER mechanism involves the oxidation of Mo⁴⁺ sites in the oxide film to Mo⁶⁺ that can be dissolved, which results in passivity breakdown. This is fundamentally different from typical transpassive breakdown of Cr‐containing alloys where Cr⁶⁺ is postulated to be dissolved at high anodic potentials, which is not observed here. At high current densities, OER also leads to acidification of the solution near the surface, further triggering metal dissolution. The OER plays an important role in the mechanism of passivity breakdown of Ni–Cr–Mo alloys due to their catalytic activity, and this effect needs to be considered when studying the corrosion of catalytically active alloys.

Passivity determines corrosion resistance and stability of highly-alloyed stainless steels, and passivity breakdown is commonly believed to occur at a fixed potential due to formation and dissolution of Cr(VI) species. In this work, the study of a 25Cr–7Ni super duplex stainless steel in 1 M NaCl solution revealed that the passivity breakdown is a continuous degradation progress of the passive film over a potential range, associated with enhanced Fe dissolution before rapid Cr dissolution and removal of the oxide. The breakdown involves structural and compositional changes of the passive film and the underlying alloy surface layer, as well as selective metal dissolution depending on the anodic potential. The onset of passivity breakdown occurred at 1000 mV/_Ag/AgCl, and Fe dissolved more on the ferrite than the austenite phase. With increasing potential, the passive film became thicker but less dense, while the underlying alloy surface layer became denser indicating Ni and Mo enrichment. Rapid Cr dissolution occurred at ≥1300 mV/_Ag/AgCl.