Abstract
THE well-known work of Evans on the passivity of metals has led to the conclusion that oxidation can occur at room temperature on copper and iron, giving a film which is too thin to show interference colours. In his lecture to the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (1929) he has remarked that it is logical to suppose that the oxide film has a real existence before any interference tints are shown. Evans quotes the work of Freundlick, Patscheke, and Zocher (Z. physical. Chem., 128, 321; 1927), who have made pure metallic iron mirrors from iron carbonyl. They find distinct changes in the reflecting power when air is admitted, showing the formation of oxide films of the order of 10-7 cm. in thickness.
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CONSTABLE, F. Invisible Oxide Films on Metals. Nature 123, 569 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/123569b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/123569b0
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