Electrochemical measurements and microscopy on hybrid coatings for metallic artefacts

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and Scanning ElectroChemical Microscopy are employed to characterize innovative hybrid coatings, which can be proposed for the corrosion protection of cultural metallic artefacts. In this paper hybrid TEOS and Graphene Oxide epoxy coatings have been tested in view of their possible employment as protective coatings for archaeological iron artefacts. The coatings have been deposited on low carbon steel and exposed to aggressive solutions. The performance of EIS and ElectroChemical Microscopy have been compared with the final aim of investigating if the proposed measuring approaches can easily give useful results to help the restorers in the choice of the conservation methodology. Comparing results from the two techniques can give a deeper knowledge of the coating performance and of their degradation mechanism.