Sensing of corrosion on aluminum surfaces by use of metallic optical fiber

Abstract

We present a new method for monitoring aluminum corrosion by determining the kind of light output that is as corrosion occurs. We prepared some metallized multimode optical fibers by physical vacuum deposition of aluminum to monitor metal corrosion. The sensing area was 1-2 cm in length and had an uncladded part. We used scanning-electron microscopy (SEM) to observe the microappearance of the aluminum before and after corrosion by sodium hydroxide or hydrochloric acid. The film's thickness was also measured by SEM. The factors that affect the rate of corrosion were also investigated.