Resumen

MEDINA-CUSTODIO, O; ORTIZ-PRADO, A; JACOBO-ARMENDARIZ, V.H.  y  SCHOUWENAARS-FRANSSENS, R. Microbiological Corrosion in Low Carbon Steels. Ing. invest. y tecnol. [online]. 2009, vol.10, n.1, pp. 9-19. ISSN 1405-7743.

The Microbiologically Induced Corrosion affects several industries, such as oil industry where it is estimated that 20% to 30% pipes failures are related with microorganism . The chemical reactions generate ions transfer, this validate the use of electrochemical techniques for its analysis. Coupons submerged in a nutritional medium with presence and absence of three different microorganisms during two periods, 48 hours and 28 days we restudied. Polarization resistance (Rp) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) techniques we re applied to determine the corrosivity of the systems. The results show a greater corrosive effect of abiotic system, this indicates a microorganisms protection effect to the metal, opposite to the first hypothesis. This result was ratified observing surfaces coupons by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technique. A possible mechanism based on Evans - Tafel graph is proposed to explain inhibitor microorganism effect.

Palabras llave : Low carbon steel; Microbiologically Induced Corrosion (MIC); electrochemical techniques.