Long-term corrosion behaviour of low-carbon steel in anoxic environment: Characterisation of archaeological artefacts

In the context of nuclear waste storage, archaeological artefacts can be used as analogues for long-term prediction of iron corrosion behaviour. As many studies are based on laboratory simulations, it is necessary to establish a link between short and long-term behaviour. In this study, corrosion product crystalline structures on archaeological artefacts buried in soils and iron coupons immersed in synthetic environments have been compared. The occurrence of carbonated iron (siderite FeCO3 and iron hydroxicarbonate Fe2(OH)2CO3) has been observed on items from both environments using Raman micro-spectroscopy and X-ray micro-diffraction.